ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND

NEW SEEIES
VOL. XVI.

LAWA IH
A TREATISE OE" StJFISM

BY
f
NUE-UD-DIN ABD-UK-BAHMAN JAMI

FACSIMILE OF AN OLD MS.

WITH A TRANSLATION BY

E. H. WHINFIELD, M.A., AND MIRZA MUHAMMAD KAZVlNl

preface on tbe Influence of <5reefc

upon

LONDON
EOYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
22, ALBEMAELE STKEET
1906
BP
181
See but One, say but One, know but One.
GULSHAN i RAZ : 1. 883.

The Alif of the Loved One s form is graven on my heart,

No other letter did my Shaikh ever to me impart.

HAFIZ : Ode 416 (ed. Brockhaus).

My heart inquired, What is the heaven-sent lore ?

If thou st attained it, teach me, I implore.

Alif, I said, if there be one within,

1

One letter serves to name him say no more.

OMAR KHAYYAM :
Quatrain 109.
 CONTENTS
PAOK
PREFACE vii

TRANSLATION OF THE LAWA lH -

17
APPENDICES :

I. GHAZZALI ON TAUHID -
59
II. PLOTINUS - - 64
III. GHAZZALI ON MYSTICAL UNION - 70
FACSIMILE OF MANUSCRIPT OF THE LAWA lH (56 pages)
 PREFACE

THE Lau-d ih is treatise on Sufi theology or theosophy,

a
as distinguished from the religious emotions experienced
by all Sufis, learned and unlearned alike. Catholic
authorities have drawn this distinction between experi
1
mental and doctrinal mysticism, and it is a great
help towards clear thinking on this subject. The religious
emotion common to all mankind is, so to speak, raised to its
?ith power in the mystics. They are overwhelmed by the
sense of the Divine omnipresence, and of their own depen
dence on God. They are dominated and intoxicated by their
vivid sense of the close relation subsisting between the soul
and God. They conceive themselves as being in touch with
God, feeling His motions in their souls, and at times rising to
direct vision of Him by the inner light vouchsafed to them.
These religious experiences were the rough material out of
which the doctrinal reasoned system, set out in treatises like
the Lawd ify, was built Psychologists have advanced
up.
various theories as tothe genesis of these experiences. 2
With these we are not at present concerned. But as to the
origin of the philosophical ideas and terms employed in the
Lau-d ify and similar works to formulate the Sufi theology,
there can be little doubt. The source of Sufi theology was
Neoplatonism.
The title of the book, Law&ih, or Flashes of Light,
1
See the article on Mystical Theology in Addis and Arnold s
Catholic Dictionary/
2
See Dr. William James s Varieties of Beligious Experience
(Longmans, 1902). It may be doubted whether the subliminal self
affords a satisfactory solution of the problem.
vii
 ( viii )

suggests the philosophy employed to systematize and give a

reasoned basis for the unreasoned experiences of unlearned
Sufis. It of course refers to the inner light. The Platonists
were called Ishrdqln or Illuminati, because they regarded
intellectual intuition or intuitive reason as the main source of

knowledge, whereas the Peripatetics (Mashshd m) recognised

no sources of knowledge except the senses and the discursive
reason (Dianoia). The word Ishrdq or Lights, is often met
t

with in this connection. Thus Shams-ud-dm Muhammad ash-

Shahrazurl is called by Haji Khalfa a metaphysician learned
1
in the inner lights (Ishrdq). Shihab-ud-dm as Suhrawardi,
who was put to death at Aleppo in 537 A.H. by order of that
valiant defender of the Faith, Sultan Salah-ud-dm, wrote a
*
book entitled Hikmat-ul-Ishrdq, or Philosophy of Inner
2
Light. The author of the Dabistdn says that the belief of
the pure Sufis is the same as that of the Ishrdqln or
Platonists,
3
and also that Sufis were classed as orthodox
(Mutasharri ) and Platonists. 4
Haji Khalfa, in his article on
Sufism (Tasawwuf), says that anyone who reads Sufi books
cannot fail to remark that their terminology is borrowed from
the Platonists (Ishrdqln), and more especially from the later
5
ones i.e., the Neoplatonists.

It was probably at about the end of the fifth century A.H.

that Neoplatonic ynosis began to influence and modify Sufi
doctrine. Up to that date the doctrine had been expounded
and similes like those in
in short precepts, parables (mithcU),
the Koran. But educated Moslems had outgrown these
primitive methods of instruction. They wanted something
more systematic. Jalal-ud-dln Bum I tells us how his critics
assailed him for dealing in trivial examples and parables
iustead of giving a systematic account of the stages of the
soul s ascent to God. 6 Ibn Khaldun mentions MuhasibI and
1
Haji Khalfa, iii. 479.
2
Ibn Khallikan, iv. 153. This Shihab-ud-dln must not be confounded
with his more famous namesake who died at Baghdad in the odour of
sanctity in 632 A.H. Ibn Khallikan, ii. 382.
3
Shea and Troyer s translation, iii. 281.
4
Ibid., ii. 374 ;see also iii. 139.
5
Haji Khalfa, ii. 308.
6 See
Masnavl, p. 168.
the great Imam Ghazzali as among the first who wrote
systematic treatises on the doctrines of the Sufis. 1 We have
Ghazzali s own account of the way in which he was attracted
to Sufism, and other passages in his writings prove that he
2

3
used the forms of Greek thought to explain Sufi principles.
If it be asked how Greek philosophy reached Ghazzali, who was

a native of Khurasan, 4 the answer is easy. When Justinian

closed the schools at Athens, Damascius and his Neoplatonist
brethren fled to the court of Nushirvan. They only remained
there about a year, and left in 533 A.D. but Nushirvan had
;

some translations of Neoplatonist books made at the time, and

these were followed by many others, made two centuries and
5
a half later, under the Abbasides atBaghdad.
Greek philosophy was expounded by the so-called Arabian,
but really Persian, philosophers, Al Farabi and Avicena, and
afterwards in the Ikhivdn-us-Safd. 6 Shahrastam, a contem
porary of Ghazzali, gave accounts of all the chief Greek
philosophers, including the Shaikh of the Greeks or
7
Plotinus, his editor Porphyry and Proklus. The so-called
Theology of Aristotle, which is a summary of the Enneads
of Plotinus, 8
appeared probably soon afterwards. The result
was that Neoplatonism, mainly in the form expounded by
Plotinus, was used by all the more learned Sufis to explain
and justify the simple emotional sayings of the early Sufis.
Henceforward, Neoplatonism pervades all systematic treatises
on Sufism, such as the Fastis -id- Hikam, the Maqsad-ul-Aqsa, Q
the Gulshan i Rdz, 10 and the Lawaih. Even the poets use the
1
Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, xii., pp. 301, 302.
2 See Schmolders, Ecoles Philosophiques chez les Arabes, p. 55.
3
See the passage on Taulnd given in Appendix I.
4
Khurasan was the focus of culture, as Hammer says, and most of
the philosophers came from that Eastern province.
5
Whittaker s Neoplatonists, p. 133 and Schmolders, Documenta
;

Philosophise Araburn (Bonn, 1836), Introduction.

6
See Dieterici s Die Weltseele (Leipzig, 1872).
7
See Haarbriicker s German translation of Shahrastani s Book of
Sects, 192 (Halle, 1850).
ii.
8
See Dr. Bronnle s note, Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, April,
1901. The book was published with a Latin translation by Petrus
Nicolaus in 1518.
9
The late Professor Palmer published a summary of this book under >

the title of Oriental Mysticism

(Cambridge, 1867).
Edited and translated by me (Triibner, 1880).
2
Greek terminology. Thus Hakim Sana I, who lived at the
same time as Ghazzall, introduces Universal Eeason and
Universal Soul, the second and third hypostases of the
Trinity of Plotinus, and the principal later poets follow suit.
1

The first Sufis differed from ordinary Moslems only in

their quietism (tasllm) and their puritan ideal of life. They
held the orthodox doctrines, with perhaps a few reservations.
But when Greek influences came into play all these doctrines
underwent more or less modification. Take the following
samples :

The cardinal doctrine of Islam was altered from Mono

1.

theism to Monism. There is no God but Allah became

1
There is no real Being or real Agent but The One," The " "

Truth "

(AlHaqq).
2. God
is no longer a supramundane Deity, enthroned

above the empyrean heaven, creating the world by one fiat,

ruling His subjects, like some mighty monarch, by commands
and prohibitions, and paying them wages according to their
deserts. He has become a Being immanent and deeply *

interfused in the universe, 2 and giving it all the real

existence it has. The Koran speaks of Allah as omniscient,
but omniscience was now expanded into omni-essence, if one
3
may use such a word. And the Plotinian emanation doc
trine was borrowed to support this.
3. Like all great religious teachers, Muhammad laid chief
stress on right conduct, and this consisted in implicit obedi
ence to every one of Allah s commands, as disobedience to any
one was sin. The distinction between moral laws and com-
1
Mr. Nicholson has brought this out in his Diwfim Shamsi Tabriz
(Cambridge, 1898). For a sketch of the system of Plotinus see
Appendix II.
2
Cp. Wordsworth, Lines on Tintern Abbey :

1
A sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the heart of man ;

A motion and a spirit that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

a
Or omneity, as Sir Thomas Browne calls it in the Eeligio Medici, 35.
 ( xi )

mands merely relating to ritual observances was not clearly

laid down. It has been said that Islam means striving after
righteousness.
1
That is so, but righteousness was inter
preted as including the scrupulous observance of trivial rules
2
as to ablutions, prayers, fasting, etc. It may well be doubted

if Muhammad is responsible for some of the directions about

3
ritual which are ascribed to him, but, be this as it may, more
and more importance came to be assigned to the scrupulous
observance of these ritual forms. The early Sufis disliked this
externalism, and came to regard all rites as of small account.

They thought that the mechanical routine of rites (taqltd)

only served to induce the spiritual torpor, which Dante called
Accidla. 4 St. Bernard remarked this result in his monks,
but he set it down to the fault of the men, not to that of the

system. The Sufi theologians adopted the Neoplatonist view

.thatthe ritual law is not binding upon spiritual men.
St. Paul held a similar view. Shabistari contrasts the mere
outward Islam of ritual observances with the true piety of
some heathens, much advantage of the latter, and
to the
Jalal-ud-dm Buml declares that Fools exalt the Mosque while
5
they ignore the true temple in the heart.
4. The Koranic doctrine of future rewards and punish

ments was ultimately refined away. The early Sufis held

very strongly that love to God should be quite disinterested
and untainted by hope of reward. They thought other-
worldliness no better than worldliness. According to the
Sufi theologians there is no material heaven or hell. When

1
Surah, 14 Hirschfeld, p. 14
Ixxii. ; and Suhrawardy s Sayings of ;

Mohammad. Jorjani defines Islam as unquestioning obedience and

submission to Allah s commands ( Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits,
x., p. 53.
2
See the rules about ablution, etc., in the Mishcat ul Masablh, trans
lated by Matthews (Calcutta, 1809). Cp. Omar Khayyam s whimsical
complaint, Quatrain 180.
3
They seem opposed to the spirit of the text Kighteousness does not :

consist in turning to the east or to the west, etc. (Surah, ii. 172).
4
Purgatory (Canto XVII.).
5
Gulshan. i Eaz, 1. 877 and Masnavi, p. 100, and Introduction,
;

p. xxxiv (second edition). But elsewhere (at p. 76) Jalal-ud-din says

forms and symbols are generally needed. In default of some outward
and visible sign which they can jperceive, men find it hard to conceive the
inward spirit.
22
union is attained, asked Shabistarl, of what account then
will be Paradise and the Houris? 1
On the other hand,
those who
lead evil lives would lose by degrees the portion of
real being within them, dropping to the level of animals,
or even plants, and finally relapsing into non-existence.
This result nowhere clearly stated, but seems implied in
is

the language used, which is, of course, very guarded. 2

5. Muhammad had no taste for speculation. He said :

Think on the mercies of God, not on the essence of God.

And again : Sit not with those who discuss predestination.
His language on predestination is merely popular. In one
passage it is that of determinism, in another that of freewill.
In one place Allah constrains all, guiding some aright and
causing others to err.
3
Elsewhere man acts freely without
constraint. But the theologians fastened on these obscure
problems, and did their best to shift the religious centre of
gravity from right conduct to right opinion on these problems.
The traditionists fathered on Muhammad various sayings to
prove that he regarded orthodoxy on these afterthoughts
of theology as all important for salvation. Thus the saying,
My people shall be split into seventy- three sects, all of
whom but one shall perish in hell fire, is one which betrays

theological authorship. In Muhammad s lifetime the contest

was not with sects within Islam, but with those who denied
Islam altogether. For these he had no mercy, but he would
scarcely have been so hard on his own people for venial
errors of opinion. Again, he could hardly have said,
Magian (dualists), at a time when (as is
*
Qadarians are
almost certain) no sect of that name had yet arisen.
4
The
early Sufis did not concern themselves with the disputes of
the sects. But the Sufi theologians could not altogether
ignore them. They took sides against the sects which leaned
to anthropomorphism, and, on the other hand,
fully agreed
with the doctrine of the Compulsionists or extreme Pre-
destinarians. 5 That sect held that God, as the One real Agent,
i
Gulshan i Kaz, 1. 701.
2
See Omar Khayyam (second edition), Appendix, p. 358.
:i
Koran, xvi. 38, 39.
4
The Qadarians would be classed as semi Pelagians by Western -

theologians.
"

See Gulshan i luiz, 1. 105 and 5H8.

 ( xiii )

not only permitted ovil, but of set purpose allotted evils,

present or future, to the majority of mankind. This

strange doctrine (which has its parallel in Europe) forced
the Silfl theologians to attempt some reconciliation of Divine

power, as thus interpreted, with Divine goodness, and here,

like Augustine, they availed themselves of the not-being
(
a<l
in) of Plotinus. 1

Perhaps, however, the true Sufi spirit was best interpreted /

by Jaltil-ud-dm KQmi, when he declared that he agreed with
all seventy-three sects as being all honest attempts to /

grasp the obscure truth. Errors in naming the names of

God are of small account. According to the Ifadlili, He \

who does the works will know the doctrine. And true love_x
2
to God atones for all mistakes of doctrine.
Jam! is a typical Sufi theologian. He works hard to
construct a reasoned basis for Siifism, but finally realizes
that his logical definitions and syllogisms cannot express the
truth as it really is, and add nothing to the grounds on which
the convictions of Sufis must always rest. It is
only by
means of the spiritual clairvoyance generated by love that
Divine knowledge (ma rifat) can be attained. 3 Those who
have these spiritual intuitions do not need demonstrations,
and to those who have them not all demonstrations are
useless.
6. Muhammad, like Luther, rejected asceticism. Suhra-
wardy quotes several of his anti-ascetic sayings, including
the familiar one, There is no monasticism in Islam. He
approved true, and prescribed a month of
of poverty, it is

fasting, but set his face firmly against the cloistered life
and celibacy. 4 The early Sufis were, perhaps, attracted to
1
Sec Masnavl (second edition), Introduction, p. xxx, etc., and
Flash XXVII. in this treatise.
J
See the parable of Moses and the shepherd who was faulty in
theology, but fervent in spirit ( MasnavT, p. 82, and also p. 139).
See Masnavi, p. 260. Newman ( Apologia, p. 19) quotes Keblo as
;i

saying, The firmness of assent which we give to religious doctrine is due,

not to the probabilities which introduced it, but to the living power of
faith and love which accepted it. This is worked out in Newman s
( . r;mnn;ir of Assent.
1
See the Sayings of Muhammad, by Suhrawardy (Constable, 1905),
Nos. ]-2f>, :U)I, 186, etc.
 ( xiv )

asceticism by the example of the Christians in Syria, where

the first Sufi convent was built; and
Neoplatonist doctrine
furnished the rationale of ascetic practice. Matter was evil,
and therefore all material and sensuous taint, including the

natural instincts (plironema sarkos), must be purged away and

extirpated by all who claimed to be spiritual men. Thus
1

a double system of religious conduct was set up the external

law for ordinary men and the counsels of perfection, the
more perfect way and contemplation for spiritual
of asceticism
men. The external law of ritual observances had no longer
2
any dominion over spiritual men. This abrogation of the
ceremonial law naturally tempted some undisciplined Sufis,
as it has tempted some professing followers of St. Paul,
to laxity in the observance of the moral law. It is needless
to say that these antinomian developments were never
countenanced by any reputable theologians or teachers, but,
on the contrary, were always condemned by them. Still, it
cannot be denied that wild enthusiasts and false brethren did
occasionally misinterpret Sufi doctrines in this way, and thus
gave some ground for the prejudices of orthodox Moslems
against the whole body of Sufis.
History of Dogma, has shown how pro
Harnack, in his
foundly Christian theology has been affected by Neoplatonist
ideas. The disputes about Ousia, Hypostasis, and Physis
which rent Christendom asunder 3 mainly grew from after
thoughts of theology suggested by these ideas, and their
4
influence has extended to our days. own
It is hardly too

much to say that their influence on the course of events has

been as considerable as that of the Koman law. In Islam
their influence has been much more restricted than in
5
Christendom, but, such as it was, it is instructive to trace it.

Jalal-ud-din Rumi, however, takes occasion to warn his disciples that

1

this counsel of perfection is not to be taken too literally. See the parable
of the peacock who tore off his plumage to avoid the pursuit of the
fowlers ( Masnavi, p. 228).
2
See Masnavi, p. 224.
3
Gibbons Decline and Fall, chapter xxi.
4
Paulus genuit Augustinum et Augustinus genuit Calvinum. With
*
Paul should be coupled Plotinus. See Bigg s Introduction to Augustine s
Confessions (Methuen, 1903).
5
For a sketch of the system of Plotinus, who is the best exponent of
Neoplatonism, see Appendix II.
 ( XV )

The manuscript of the Lawa ih now reproduced is undated,

but was probably written within a century of Jaml s death in
898 A.H. It once belonged to the royal library at Delhi, and the
outside pages contain notes by the librarians, one of which,
dated the twenty-fourth year of Aurangzlb, states that it was
worm-eaten even then. W. H. Morley, who also owned it, has
noted on the fly -leaf his opinion that it is not Jaml s work,
but written by one Sayyid Abd-ul Kafi. This, however, is
certainly a mistake. Haji Khalfa, in his notice of Jaml s
Lawd ih, quotes the beginning, which agrees with the beginning
of this manuscript, and one of the quatrains gives Jaml s
1

name. The British Museum possesses three copies viz.,

Add. 16,820 (Eieu, p. 44a) Add. 16,819, iv (Rieu, p. 826fc)
; ;

and Add. 7,689, iv, folio 150 onwards (Rieu, p. 810&).

Copies are to be found in other libraries. In addition to
that now reproduced, I possess one, written in an Indian
2
hand, probably in the eighteenth century.
The facsimile of the manuscript has been made by Messrs.
Nops, of
Ludgate Hill. They have been very successful in
removing nearly all traces of the stains and worm-holes in the

original, and I think the writer of the manuscript himself,

could he see it, would find little fault with their reproduction
of his handiwork.

began the translation some years ago, but, owing to failing

I

eyesight, had to stop after getting to the end of Flash VII.

I have now been fortunate enough to secure the assistance of
a very competent scholar, Miirza Muhammad Kazvim, who
has furnished me with a literal French version of the whole,
together with some valuable notes. In his translation the
Mirza has chiefly followed the British Museum Manuscript,
Add. No. 16,819, which contains several passages not found
in this manuscript. Most, if not all, of these seem to me to
be glosses which have crept into the text, but I have given
them in this translation, marking them with square brackets.
Up to the end of Flash VII. the accompanying translation is
that made by me some years ago, with some corrections sug-
1
Haji Khalfa, v. 344.
2
The Munich Catalogue, p. 21, mentions a manuscript of the
Lawayih (.sic) with a different beginning.
 ( xvi )

gested by the Mlrza s version. From the beginning of

Flash VIII. to the end of the book the translation is the
Mirza s French version turned into English by me. In this
part of the work I have followed the Mirza closely, only re
ferring to the original to verify a word here and there. I am

solely responsible for the preface and notes. If they contain

errors of fact or doctrine, these must not be imputed to the

Mirza.
The references to the Gulshan i Rdz are to my edition of
that work (Triibner, 1880) those to the Masnavl of Jalal-
;

ud-dm Bum! to my translation of that poem (second edition,

published in Triibner s Oriental Series, 1898) ; those to Omar
Khayyam to my text and translation, published in the same
series, second edition, 1901.
As regards transliteration, I follow the rule laid down long
since by the Indian Government, that when foreign words
have become naturalized in English they should be spelled
according to English usage. Thus I write Calcutta, Delhi,
Koran, Abbasides, etc. Again, when a Persian writer has
chosen to transliterate his own name in a particular way,
I do not presume to interfere with his discretion. I give titles
of books as they are spelled on the title-pages, and, like Kieu,
I represent Hamza by the spiritus lenis ( ). With these
exceptions I have in the main observed the transliteration
rules of the Koyal Asiatic Society.
E. H. W.
 TRANSLATION OF THE LAWA IH.

*I DO not render praises unto Thee. How is this, seeing

1

2
that all
praise returns to Thee ? The threshold of Thy
sanctity is too high for my praises. Thou art what Thine
own praises declare Thee. Lord, we are not able to
tell praises or set forth Thy glories.
Thy Whatsoever is
manifested on the pages of the universe is praise reflected
back to the threshold of Thy most glorious Majesty.
What can faculty or tongue of mine declare worthy of Thy
glory and honour? Thou art such as Thou hast Thyself
declared, and the pearls of Thy praise are what Thyself hast
strung.
In the vast largesse of Thy Majesty
This whole world s but a drop from out the sea ;

What power have we to celebrate Thy praise ?

No praises save Thine own are meet for Thee !

Where the speaker of the words, I am the most eloquent

3
[of the Arabs ], lowered the flag of his eloquence, and found
himself impotent to render Thee fitting praises, how shall a
mere stammerer venture to open his mouth or a dullard
deliver an apt discourse ? Nevertheless, in this case to excuse
one s self on the ground of one s incapacity and deficiencies
is itself the gravest of defects, and to
put one s self on a level
with that prince of the world and of the faith would be a
serious breach of propriety.

1
A saying of Muhammad.
2
Fluegel (Haji Khalfa, v. 344) translates, Quomodo possim? Cp.
*
Surah, xvii. 46, Neither is there aught which doth not celebrate Thy
praise, and Ps. cxlv. 10.
I am the most eloquent; of those
3
Referring to the saying, who
pronounce the letter Zad (Dzad), the Arab shibboleth.
17 3
 ( 18 )

What am I ? Cancount myself the peer

I
Of the poor dog that suffered to draw near
s ?

I may not join the caravan

enough
If from afar the camel bells I hear.

Lord, send down Thy blessing upon Muhammad, the

standard-bearer of praise and possessor of the glorious
station, and upon his family, and upon his companions who
1

through earnest endeavour have succeeded in attaining the

goal of their desire, and pour upon them all Thy perfect
peace !

SUPPLICATIONS. 2

God, deliver us from preoccupation with worldly vanities,

and show us the nature of things as they really are. 3 Ke-
move from our eyes the veil of ignorance, and show us things
as they really are. Show not to us non-existence as existent,
nor cast the veil of non-existence over the beauty of existence.
4
Make this phenomenal world the mirror to reflect the mani
festations of Thy beauty, and not a veil to separate and repel
us from Thee. Cause these unreal phenomena of the universe
knowledge and insight, and not the
to be for us the sources of
cause of ignorance and blindness. Our alienation and sever
ance from Thy beauty all proceed from ourselves. Deliver us
from ourselves, and accord to us intimate knowledge of Thee.

Make my heart pure, my soul from error free,

Make tears and sighs my daily lot to be,
And lead me on Thy road away from self,
That lost to self I may approach to Thee !

Set enmity between the world and me,

Make me averse from worldly company :

From other objects turn away my heart.

So that it be engrossed with love to Thee.

Muhammad, that thy Lord will raise thee to a glorious

1 *
It may
be,
station (Koran, xvii. 81), interpreted to mean, his power of intercession.
2
The headings are all omitted in this manuscript, but spaces are left,
which were probably intended to be filled in with gold lettering.
3
A prayer ascribed to Muhammad. See Gulshan i Kaz, p. 21,
note 1.
4
The divine Keal Being is reflected in Notbeing ( adm) as in a mirror,
*

*
and gives it all the reality it possesses. See Gulshan i p. 14, 1. 134.
B<Iz,

This idea comes from Plotinus, the Shaikh of the Greeks.

 ( 19 )

How it, Lord, if Thou should

were st set me free
From error s grasp and cause me truth to see 1
G-uebres by scores Thou makest Musulmans,
Why, then, not make a Musulman of me 1
My lust for this world and the next efface,
Grant me the crown of poverty and grace
To be partaker in Thy mysteries,
From paths tkat lead not towards Thee turn my face.

PEEFACE.
This is a treatise entitled Lawa ih 1 ( Flashes of Light ),

explanatory of the intuitions and verities displayed on the

pages of the hearts and minds of men of insight and divine
knowledge, and of those who enjoy spiritual raptures and
ecstasies. It is written in suitable language adorned with
pleasing explanations. I trust that readers will hold of no
account the personality of the author of this commentary, and
will refrain from taking their seats upon the carpet of cavil
ling and animadversion. For the author plays only the part
of interpreter in the following discussions ;
his sole function
is that of mouthpiece, and nothing else.

Believe me, I am naught yea, less than naught.

By naught and less than naught what can be taught?
I tell the mysteries of truth, but know

Naught save the telling to this task I brought.

For poverty make no sign is best,

to
On love divine to hold one s peace is best ;

For him who never felt ecstatic joys

To play a mere reporter s part is best.
With men of light I sought these pearls to string,
The drift of mystics sayings forth to bring ;

Now let his trusty slaves this tribute bear

From foolish me to Hamadan s wise king. 2

1
Haji Khalfa (v., p. 344) says Sayyid Kaseh Karrani wrote a Persian
commentary upon it.
2
The person referred to is probably Shah Manuchahr, Governor of
Hamadan, who paid much attention to Jam! when he visited the town in
877 A.H. See Lee s preface to the Nafahat, p. 11. Note the pun on
Kama Dan ( All-knowing ). Amir Sayyid All of Hamadan, a Sufi
saint, is mentioned in the Nafahat, p. 515, but as he died in 786 A.H ., it
is not likely that Janii is speaking of him.
32
 ( 20 )

Flash /.i

God has not made man with two hearts within him. 2 The
Incomparable Majesty who has conferred the boon of existence
upon thee has placed within thee but one heart, to the end
that with single heart thou mayest love Him alone, and
mayest turn thy back on all besides and devote thyself to Him
alone, and refrain from dividing thy heart into a hundred
portions, each portion devoted to a different object.

votary of earthly idols fane,

Why let these veils of flesh enwrap thy brain ?

Tis folly to pursue a host of loves ;

A single heart can but one love contain !

Flash II.

Distraction or disunion (Tafriqah) consists in dividing the

heart by attaching it to divers objects. Union or collected-
ness (jam iyyat*) consists in forsaking all else and being wholly
engrossed in the contemplation of the One Unique Being.
Those who fancy that collectedness results from the collecting
of worldly goods remain in perpetual distraction, whilst those
who areconvinced that amassing wealth is the cause of
distraction renounce all worldly goods.

thou whose heart is torn by lust for all,

Yet vainly strives to burst these bonds of all,
This all begets distraction of the heart :

Give up thy heart to ONE and break with all.

While thou rt distraught by hell-born vanity,

Thou rt seen by men of union base to be ;
By God, thou art a demon, 4 and no man,
Too ignorant thy devilry to see.
5
pilgrim on the path vain talk reject ;
{

All roads save that to Unity neglect ;

Naught but distractedness proceeds from wealth :

Collect thine heart, not store of wealth collect.

1
La ihah. These headings, which are found in other manuscripts,
are omitted in this, as before remarked.
2
Koran, xxxiii. 4.
3
Also tranquillity, congregation, totality.
4
Nasnas ; literally, a fabulous monster, a satyr.
5
Sillile.
 ( 21 )

heart, thy high-prized learning of the schools,

Geometry and metaphysic rules
Yea, all but lore of God is devils lore :

Fear God arid leave this evil lore to fools.

Flash III.
The Truth, most glorious and most exalted, is omni
present. He knows the outer and inner state of all men in
every condition. Oh, what a loss will be thine if thou turnest
thine eyes from His face to fix them on other objects, and
forsakest theway that is pleasing to Him to follow other
roads !

My Love stood by me at the dawn of day,

And said, To grief you make my heart a prey
<

Whilst I am casting looks of love at you,

Have you no shame to turn your eyes away ?

All my life long I tread love s path of pain,

If peradventure union I may gain.
Better to catch one moment s glimpse of Thee
Than earthly beauties love through life retain.

Flash IV.

Everything other than the Truth (may He be glorified

and exalted) is subject to decay and annihilation. Its sub
stance is a mental figment with no objective existence, and its
form is a merely imaginary entity.
Yesterday this universe neither existed nor appeared to
exist, while to-day it appears to exist, but has no real exist
ence : it is a mere semblance, and to-morrow nothing thereof
will be seen. What does it profit thee to allow thyself to be
guided by vain passions and desires ? Why dost thou place
reliance on these transitory objects that glitter with false
lustre? Turn thy heart away from all of them, and firmly
attach it to God. Break loose from and cleave
all these,
closely to Him. It is only He who always has been and
always will continue to be. The countenance of His eternity
is never scarred
by the thorn of contingency.
 ( 22 )

The fleeting phantoms you admire to-day

Will soon at Heavens behest be
swept away.
give your heart to Him who never fails,
Who s ever with you and will ever stay.
When to fair idols shrines I did repair,
I vexed myheart with griefs encountered there ;

Now earthly beauty has lost all its charm,

Eternal beauty is my only care.
Things that abide not to eternity
Expose thee to misfortune s battery ;

In this life, then, sever thyself from all

From which thy death is bound to sever thee.
Perchance with wealth and sons endowed thou art.
Yet with all these erelong thou lt have to part.
Thrice happy he who gives his heart to ONE,
And sets affection on the men of heart.

Flash V.
The Absolute Beauty is the Divine Majesty endued with
[the attributes of] power and bounty. Every beauty and
perfection manifested in the theatre of the various grades of
beings is a ray of His perfect beauty reflected therein. It is
from these rays that exalted souls have received their impress
beauty and their quality of perfection.
1
of Whosoever is wise
derives his wisdom from the Divine wisdom. Wherever
intelligence is found it is the fruit of the Divine intelligence.
In a word, all are attributes of Deity which have descended
from the zenith of the Universal and Absolute to the nadir of
the particular and relative. [They have descended] to the
end that thou mayest direct thy course from the part towards
the Whole, and from the relative deduce the Absolute, and not
imagine the part to be distinct from the Whole, nor be so
engrossed with what is merely relative as to cut thyself off
from the Absolute.
The Loved One s rose-parterre I went to see,
That beauty s Torch 2 espied me, and, quoth He,
I am the tree ;
these flowers My offshoots are.
Let not these offshoots hide from thee the tree.

Spenser in the Hyrnn of Heavenly Love expresses the same idea,

1

which comes from Plato.

a
Literally, Torch of Tiraz, a town in Turkistan famed for its beautiful
women.
 ( 23 )

What profit rosy cheeks, forms full of grace,

And ringlets clustering round a lovely face 1
When Beauty Absolute beams all around,
Why linger finite beauties to embrace 1

Flash VI.

Man, in regard to his corporeal nature, stands at the lowest

point of degradation nevertheless, in regard to his spiritual

;

nature, he is at the summit of nobility. He takes the impress

of every thing to which he directs his attention, and assumes
the colour of every thing to which he approaches. Where
fore philosophers say that when the reasonable soul adorns
itselfwith exact and faithful impressions of realities, and
appropriates to itself the true character of such realities, it
becomes such as if it were
altogether essential Being.
itself In
like manner the vulgar, by the force of their conjunction with
these material forms and extreme preoccupation with these

corporeal liens, come to be such that they cannot distinguish

themselves from these forms or perceive any difference
between the two. Well says the Maulavl of Bum (may God
sanctify his secret) in the Masnam :

brother, thou art wholly thought,

For the rest of thee is only bone and muscle :

If thy thought be a rose, thou art a rose-bouquet ;

If it be a thorn, thou art fuel for the tire.

Wherefore it behoves thee to strive and hide thy from thy se//"

1
sight, and occupy thyself with Very Being, and concern thy
self with the Truth. For the various grades of created
things are theatres of His revealed beauty, and all things that
exist are mirrors of his perfections.
And in this course thou must persevere until He mingles
Himself with thy soul, and thine own individual existence
passes out of thy sight. Then, if thou regardest thyself, it is
He whom thou art regarding if thou speakest of thyself, it is
;

He of whom
thou art speaking. The relative has become the
Absolute, and I am the Truth is equivalent to He is the
2
Truth.
1
Variant, hide thyself from the sight of the world.
2
The saving of Mansur i Ilallaj (or Ibn Hallaj), the Sufi martyr.
 ( 24 )

If love of rose orbulbul fill thine heart,

Thyself a rose or eager bulbul art.
Thou art a part ;
the Truth is all in all.
Dwell on the Truth, and cease to be a part.

Of my soul s union with this fleshly frame,

Of and death Thou art the end and aim.
life
I pass away; Thou only dost endure.
When I say me, tis Thee I mean to name. 1
*

When will this mortal dress be torn away,

And Beauty Absolute His face display,
Merging my soul in His resplendent light,
Blinding my heart with His o erpowering ray 1

Flash VII.

necessary for thee to habituate thyself to this intimate

It is

relation in such wise that at no time and in no circumstance

thou mayest be without the sense of it, whether in coming or
in going, in eating or sleeping, in speaking or listening. In
short, thou must ever be on the alert both when resting and
when working, not to waste thy time in insensibility [to this
relation] nay, more, thou must watch every breath, and take
heed that it
goeth not forth in negligence.

The years roll on ;

Thou showest not Thy face,
Yet nothing from my breast Thy love can chase ;

Thine image ever dwells before mine eyes,

And in my heart Thy love aye holds its place.

Flash VIII.
In like manner, as it behoves thee to maintain the said
relation continually, so it is of the first importance to develop
the quality thereof by detaching thyself from mundane rela
tions and by emancipating thyself from attention to contingent
forms and this is possible only through hard striving and
;

earnest endeavour to expel vain thoughts and imaginations

from thy mind. The more these thoughts are cast out and
1
Compare the story of the Sufi aspirant who was refused admittance
by his Plr till he ceased to speak of me and called himself thee
*

( "Masnavi, p. 47).
 ( 25 )

these suggestions checked, the stronger and closer this relation

becomes. It is, then, necessary to use every endeavour to force
these thoughts to encamp outside the enclosure of thy breast,
and that the Truth most glorious may cast His beams into
thy heart, and deliver thee from trryself, and save thee from
the trouble of entertaining His rivals in thy heart. Then
there will abide with thee neither consciousness of thyself, nor
even consciousness of such absence of consciousness 1 nay,
there will abide nothing save the One God alone.

From my brute nature, 2 Lord, deliver me,

And life of evil set me free ;
from this
Purge me of my own sense and ignorance,
And make me lose my very self in Thee.

When poor indeed and dead to self thou lt need

No visions, knowledge, certitude, or creed ;

When self has perished naught but God remains,

For Perfect poverty is God indeed. 3

Flash IX.

Self-annihilation consists in this, that through the over

powering influence of the Very Being upon the inner man,
there remains no consciousness of aught beside Him.
Annihilation of annihilation consists in this, that there
remains no consciousness even of that unconsciousness. It
is evident that annihilation of annihilation is involved in
[the very notion of] annihilation. For if he who has attained
annihilation should retain the least consciousness of his
annihilation, he would not be in the state of annihilation,
because the quality of annihilation and the person possessing
such quality are both things distinct from the Very Being, the
Truth most glorious. Therefore, to be conscious of annihila
4
tion is incompatible with annihilation.
1
See the passage from Ghazzali in Appendix III.
2
Dadl, brutishness. Some manuscripts read duwt, disease, but this
does not suit the rhyme, which in verses with a burden (radtf) always
precedes it. Scan dadfyi, dissolving long 1 and lengthening the iztifat.
3
Seemingly a Hadith. Poverty, utter annihilation of self ( Gulshan i
Raz, 1. 128, and note).
4
So Ghazzali, quoted in Appendix III.
4
 While fondness for your self you still retain,
You ll not reduce its bulk a single grain
Yea, while you feel one hair s-breadth of yourself
Claims to annihilation are but vain.

Flash X.
Unification 1 consists in unifying the heart that is to say,
in purifying and expelling from it attachment to all things
it

other than the Truth most glorious, including not only

desire and will, but also knowledge and intelligence. In fact,
one must quench desire of all things hitherto desired, and
cease to will what one has hitherto willed, and also remove
from the intellectual vision all concepts and all cognitions,
and turn away the mind from all things whatsoever, so that
there remains no consciousness or cognition of aught save the
Truth most glorious. [Khwaja Abdullah Ansarl said :

1
Unification is not merely believing Him to be One, but in
2
thyself being one with Him.
Oneness in pilgrims phraseology
Isfrom concern with other to be free;
Learn, then, the highest station of the birds, 3
If language of the birds be known to thee.

Flash XL
So long as a man remains imprisoned in the snare of
passions and lusts, it is hard for him to maintain this close
communion [with the Truth ]. But from the moment that
sweet influence takes effect on him, expelling from his mind
the firebrand of vain imaginations and suggestions, the
pleasure he experiences therefrom predominates over bodily
pleasures and intellectual enjoyments. Then the painful
sense of effort passes away, and the joys of contemplation

Tauhid is the Hendsis of Plotirms, the becoming one with the One.
1

This sentence occurs only in the British Museum copy, Add. 16.819.
2

Khwaja Abdullah Ansarl of Herat, who died 481 A.H., was named the
Shaikh of Islam, and is often quoted by Jam! in the Nafahat. See
Haji Khalfa, i., 235.
3
Alluding to the Discourse of the Birds and their Pilgrimage to the
STmurgh, by FarTd-ud-dTn Attar. Other the HeterotT s of Plotinus.
 ( 27 )

take possession of his mind he hanishes from his heart all

;

alien distractions, and with the tongue of ecstasy murmurs

this canticle :

Like bulbul I m
inebriate with Thee, 1
My sorrows grow from memories of Thee,
Yet all earth s joys are dust beneath the feet
Of those entrancing memories of Thee.

Flash XII.

When the true aspirant perceives in himself the begin

nings of this Divine attraction, which consists in experiencing
pleasure whenever he thinks of the most glorious, he
Truth
ought to exert all his endeavours to develop and strengthen
this experience, and simultaneously to banish whatever is

incompatible therewith. He ought to know, for instance,

that even though he should employ an eternity in cultivating
this communion, that would count as nothing, and he would
not have discharged his duty as he ought.

On my soul s lute a chord was struck by Love,

Transmuting all my being into love ;

Ages would not discharge my bounden debt

Of gratitude for one short hour of love.

Flash XIII.
The essence Truth most glorious and most exalted
of the
is nothing but Being. His 2 Being is not subject to defect or
diminution. He is untouched by change or variation, and is
exempt from plurality and multiplicity He transcends all ;

manifestations, and is unknowable and invisible. Every how

and why have made their appearance through Him but in ;

Himself He transcends every how and why. Everything is

perceived by Him, while he is beyond perception. The out-
1
So in the Stabat Mater :

Fac me cruce inebriari.

2
I prefer to emphasize the religious rather than the philosophic and
abstract aspect of the Truth, and therefore use the personal pronoun.
Thus, the Good of Plato s Eepublic, Book VI., is spoken of as
Ideal
*
God Timasus. Just so To Kurion has changed into Dominus
in the
in the Western version of the Nicene Creed.
42
 C 28 )

ward eye is too dull to behold His beauty, and the eye of the
heart is dimmed by the contemplation of His perfection.

Thou, for whose love I ve sacrificed existence,

Art, yet art not, the sum of earth s existence ;

Earth lacks true Being, yet depends thereon
Thuu art true Being Thou art pure existence.
:

The Loved One is quite colourless, 1 heart ;

Be not engrossed with colours, then, O heart :

All colours come from what is colourless,

And who can dye so well as God, 2 heart?

Flash XIV.
3
By the word existence is sometimes meant simply the
state of being or existing, which is a generic concept or an
abstract idea. Taken in this sense, existence is an * idea of
the second intention, 4 which has no external object corre
5
sponding with it. It is one of the accidents of the quidity
[or real nature of the thing]which exists only in thought, as
has been proved by the reasonings of scholastic theologians
and philosophers. But sometimes existence signifies the
Eeal Being, who is Self-existent, and on whom the existence
of all other beings depends ; and in truth there is no real
external existence beside Him all other beings are merely
accidents accessory to Him, as is attested by the intuitive

apprehension of the most famous Gnostics and Men of

Certitude. The word [ existence ] is applicable to the
Truth most glorious in the latter sense only.

Things that exist to men of narrow view

Appear the accidents to substance due ;

To men of light substance is accident,

Which the True Being ever doth renew. 6
1
Absence of visible or knowable qualities.
BTrangT.
2
Koran, ii. 132.
3
Wagtid, usually necessary being as opposed to contingent. JamI
wrote a treatise on it, quoted in the Dabistan, chapter xii.
l

4
Ha quliiti tlidnlyah. In scholastic terminology terms of the second
intention are those which express abstractions from concrete individual
objects e.g., genus, species, etc. Rabelais made
fun of this term: Utrum
:

chimaera bombinans in vacuo comedere possit secundas intentiones ?

5
Quidity, what a thing is, a word derived by the Schoolmen
from
milJiri/at. See Schmolders, Documenta Philosophise Arabum, p. 133.
6
In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts xvii. 28).
 ( 29 )

Flash XV.
The from the Eeal Being in thought,
attributes are distinct
but are identical with Him and reality. For instance,
in fact
the Keal Being is omniscient in respect of His quality of
knowledge; omnipotent in respect of His power absolute in ;

respect of His will. Doubtless, just as these attributes are

distinct from each other in idea, according to their respective

meanings, so they are distinct from the Keal Being but in ;

fact and reality they are identical with Him. In other words,
there are not in Him many existences, but only one sole
existence, and His various names and attributes are merely
His modes and aspects.

Pure is Thy essence from deficiency,

Expressed how and where can never be
its ;

Thy attributes appear distinct, but are

One with Thy essence in reality.

Flash XVI.

The Eeal Being, qud Being, is above all names and attri
butes, and exempt from all conditions and relations. The
attribution to Him of these names only holds good in respect
of His aspect towards the world of phenomena. In the first
manifestation, wherein He revealed Himself, of Himself, to
Himself, were realized the attributes of Knowledge, Light,
Existence and Presence. Knowledge involved the power of
knowing and that of being known Light implied those of ;

manifesting and of being manifest Existence and Presence ;

entailed those of causing to exist and of being existent, and

those of beholding and of being beheld. And thus the
manifestation which is a characteristic of Light is preceded

by concealment and concealment, by its very nature, has

;

the priority over, and is antecedent to, manifestation hence ;

the concealed and the manifested are counted as first and

second.
And in like manner in the case of the second and third
manifestations, as long as it pleases God to continue
etc.,

them, these conditions and relations always go on redoubling

 ( 30 )

themselves. The more these are multiplied, the more com

plete is His manifestation, or rather His concealment. Glory
be to Him who hides Himself by the manifestations of His
light, and manifests Himself by drawing a veil over His face.
His concealment has regard to His pure and absolute Being,
while His manifestation has regard to the exhibition of the
world of phenomena.

fairest rose, 1 with rosebud mouth, I sighed,

Why, like coquettes, thy face for ever hidef
*

He smiled, Unlike the beauties of the earth,

Even when veiled I still may be descried.

Thy face uncovered would be all too bright,

Without a veil none could endure the sight ;
What eye is strong enough to gaze upon
The dazzling splendour of the fount of light ?

When the sun s banner blazes in the sky,

Its light gives pain by its intensity,
But when tis tempered by a veil of cloud
That light is soft and pleasant to the eye.

Flash XVII.
2
The first Epiphany is a pure unity and a simple potenti
ality, which contains including not only that
all potentialities,

of being unconditioned by modes and qualities, but also that

of being conditioned thereby. Viewed as unconditioned by
modes and qualities, including even the potentiality of being
thus unconditioned, the stage termed Unity
it is and so ;

possesses Concealment, Priority, and Existence from eternity.

On the other hand, when viewed as conditioned by modes and
qualities, it is the stage termed Singleness, and in this

aspect it is by Manifestation, Posteriority, and

marked
Duration to all eternity. Among these modes of the stage
Singleness, some are such that the qualification of the One

Cp. Rosa mystica in the Litany of the Virgin. Jalal-ud-din Rumi

1

apologizes for applying such terms to God ( Masnavl, p. 84).

2
Ta ayyun. The first Emmanation is Unity with the Truth as
being His image and mind (Logos endiathetos), but when evolved to view
(Logos propliorikos}, and as the channel of Being downwards, it is Unity
with a difference, which is sought to be expressed by the term Singleness
(Wdhidtyat instead of Afyadiyat).
 ( 31 )

1
Being by them has regard to the stage called the Whole,
whether they imply the realization in the universe of things
corresponding to the names Creator and Sustainer, etc.,
or merely attributes, such as Life, Knowledge, and Will.
This is the class of attributes which pertain to the Divinity
and the Sovereignty. The forms under which the One Eeal
Being is conceived, when clothed with these names and
attributes, are the divine substances. 2
The clothing of the
outward aspect of Being
3
with these forms does not necessitate
multiplicity of beings. Other modes are such that the qualifi
cation of the One Keal Being by them has relation to the
various grades of mundane existences,
4
as, for instance,

Difference, Property, and the phenomena which distinguish

5

external objects from one another. The forms under which

the One Eeal Being is conceived, when clothed with these
6
modes, are the mundane substances, and the clothing of
the outward aspect of Being with these forms does necessitate
a multiplicity of beings. Among these mundane substances,
some are such that when Being, considered in the stage of the
7
Unity of the Whole, is interfused in them, and His effects
and properties manifest themselves therein, these substances
have the potentiality of being theatres exhibiting all the
Divine names save those peculiar to the Divine Essence
according to the varying strength of the manifestations, which
may be powerful or feeble, irresistible or defeasible. These
are the perfect individuals of the human race to wit,
prophets and saints. Others, again, are such that they have
the potentiality of being theatres exhibiting only some of the
1
Martala i Jam\ The second emanation, Universal Soul, which
comprehends in itself all particular souls, rational, animal, and vegetive.
This Aristotelian doctrine of the soul became a commonplace of the
schools, and is referred to
by Milton, Dry den, etc.
2
Substance quod substat i.e., the reality underlying
is sensible
phenomena. Haqdiq i ildlilya.
3
I.e., the first stage of His revelation.
4
Ma/rdtib i kauniya.
5
Difference, property, accident, genus, and species, are the five heads
under which Aristotle classed the general terms capable of being used as
predicates.
6
Haqdiq i Jcaumya.
7
Akadiyat i Jam . This is the second emanation (see Flash XXIV.).
It is usually called i hull, or Universal Soul.
nafs
 ( 32 )

/ Divine names, and not all of them, according to the aforesaid

varying strength of the manifestation. These are the rest of
the human race.
The Majesty of the One Keal Being, viewed under the
*

aspect of the Unity of the Whole, which comprehends all

His modes, both Divine and mundane, 1 is for ever immanent
in all these substances, and manifesting Himself in them.
These substances are the parts of the whole Unity, whether
2
they exist in the world of spirits or in that of ideas, in the
sensible and visible world, in the world that now is, or in that
which is to come. The final Cause 3 of all this process is the
realization or manifestation of the perfection of the Divine
names, which is termed jald and istijla. Jala signifies their
outward manifestation according to their various modes ;
and
istijla their display to the Deity Himself, according to these
same modes. Jala is a visible and intelligible manifestation
or representation, just as the whole is represented by its

parts. Contrariwise, the perfection of the Divine Essence, is

the manifestation of the One Keal Being to Himself, for

Himself, without relation to anything beside Himself. This

is a secret and intelligible manifestation.
Absolute self-sufficiency a quality involved in Divine is

Perfection. that in a general and universal

It signifies this,

manner all the modes, states, and aspects of the One Keal
Being with all their adherent properties and qualities, in all
their presentations, past, present or future, manifested in all

grades of substances, Divine and mundane, are present and

realized in the secret thought of that Divine Being, in such
wise that the sum of them all is contained in His Unity.
From point of view He is independent of all other
this

existences, as it is said, God most glorious can do without

4
the world :

1
I.e., plurality summed up in Unity.
2
The world of ideas is the Platonic world of ideas or
intelligible
archetypes, apprehended only by Reason as opposed to the
(nous),
sensible world of phenomena apprehended by the senses dlam i ilml
as opposed to alam i ainl.
3 cause -
In Aristotle s language the encT(feZos) of a thing is its final
i.e., the reason of its existence.
4
Koran, xxix. 5.
 ( 33 )

The robe of Love is independent, free

From need to soil with dust its purity ;
When Actor and Spectator are the same
What means this we and thou 1 There is
l
no we.

All modes and attributes of Very Being

Are realized and present in that Being ;

To seethem He needs not contingent beings :

2

Tis the contingent needs the Very Being.

He needs not to see good and ill set out,

The One needs not to count its numbers out f
The Truth can view all things within Himself ;

What need, then, to review them all without 1

Flash XVIII.

When youabstract the appearances and characteristics of

the individuals which constitute the various species included
4
in the genus animal, the individuals are gathered up into
their respective species. When, again, you abstract the
characteristics of each species, i.e., their differences and
*

properties, all such species are gathered up into the reality

of the genus Again, when you abstract the
animal.
characteristics of the genus animal, and those of all other
genera included in the higher genus growing body, all such
genera coalesce under that genus, growing body. So when
you abstract the characteristics of growing body, and all
other genera included along with it under the higher genus
body, all such genera are united in the reality of the genus
body. Furthermore, when you abstract the characteristics
of body and those of all other genera included therewith in
1
Cp. Omar Khayyam,, Quatrain 475, and Gulshan i Baz, p. 15,
1. 143. He [God] is at once seer and thing seen.
2
Contingent being is opposed to necessary being. It is, so to speak,
unreal matter permeated with Real Being. *
It thus is, and is not, and
partakes both of existence and of non-existence, as Jowett says.
3
So Mansur-i-IIallaj The numbers of Unity arc only the counting of
:

Unity.
4
The controversy of realism and nominalism raged among Moslems as
well asamong European Schoolmen (see Schmolders, Documenta/ etc.,
p. 3). Jam! was evidently a realist. He holds genus and similar general
terms to be actual realities (marii), and not mere names. The whole
argument in this section rests on the assumption that these genera are real
entities.
 ( 34 )

the genus
higher substance, to wit, the intelligences
and souls, all such genera will be united in the reality of
*

the higher genus substance so when you abstract the ;

characteristics distinctive of substance and accident, these

two genera are united into the [reality of the genus] con
tingent. Finally, when you abstract the characteristic
distinctions of contingent and necessary, these two are
united in the Absolute Existence, which is the veritable
Being, existing of Himself, and not through another being
beyond Himself. Necessity is His external quality, and
Contingency His internal quality i.e., they are the
generated by His self-revelation to Him
l
archetypal ideas
self when assuming His modes.
All these distinctions, whether called difference and
property or appearances and characteristics, are Divine
Modes, contained and involved in the Unity of the One Eeal
Being. First, these modes are represented under the form
of the archetypal ideas in the stage called the Divine
2
Thought (or knowledge) in the next place, in the stage of
;

the sensible world, when clothed with the properties and

attributes of external existence which is the theatre of
manifestation, a mirror reflecting the inner Divine Being
these modes assume the forms of external objects.
It follows, therefore, that in the external world there is

only One Keal Being, who, by clothing Himself with different

modes and attributes, appears to be endued with multiplicity
and plurality to those who are confined in the narrow prison
of the stages, and whose view is limited to visible properties
and results.
Creation s book I studied from my youth,
And every page examined, but in sooth
I never found therein aught save the Truth,
And attributes that appertain to Truth. *

1
A thabitah, the
yan i Ideas of Plato s Intelligible World/ the
*

archetypes or patterns of all things in the external and sensible world.

In the system of Plotimis these ideas are all contained in the first emana
tion, reason (nous}. Jam! expresses intelligible world by alam i ilm,
and sensible world by alam i ain.
2
Martaba i ilm, i.e., aql i hull, nous, or Logos, the first epiphany
or emanation.
 ( 35 )

What mean Dimension, Body, Species,

In Mineral, Plant, Animal degrees?
The Truth is single, but His modes beget
All these imaginary entities.

Flash XIX.

When one says that the multiplicity of things is compre

hended in the Unity of the One Eeal Being, this does not
mean that they are the parts contained in an aggregate, or as
objects contained in a receptacle but that they are as the
;

qualities inherent in the object qualified or as consequences

flowing from their cause. Take, for instance, the half, the
third, the fourth, and other fractions up to infinity, which
are potentially 1 contained in the integer, one, though not

actually manifested until they are exposed to view by repeating

the various numbers and fractions.
It follows from this that when one says that the Truth
most glorious comprehends all beings, the meaning is that
He comprehends them as a cause comprehends its conse
quences, not that He is a whole containing them as His parts,
or as a vase containing things within it. God is too exalted
above everything which is unworthy to touch the threshold of
His holiness. 2

These modes 3 are in the essence of the Truth,

Like qualities which qualify the Truth ;
But part and whole, container and contained,
Exist not where God is. Who is the Truth. 1

Flash XX.
The manifestation or concealment of the modes and facets
in other words, the circumstance that the outward aspect of

Being does or does not clothe Himself with them causes no

change in the substance of such Being or in His essential
1
Potentiality and actuality are two of Aristotle s forms of thought,
dunamis and energeia (quwat andj/TZ).
4J
God pervades everything, but everything is not God. Thus the strict
Monism of some previous statements is considerably toned down.
3
SJicCn. The Medalists used the term modes to indicate differences
(

of form appearing in the One Substance

(Harnack On Dogma, iii. 53),
and thus to avoid ditheism.
52
 ( 36 )

attributes, but only a change in His connections and rela

tions, which, in fact, necessitates no change in His essence.
For instance, if Amr gets up from the right of Zaid and
goes and sits down on his left, the relation of Zaid to Amr in

respect to position will be changed, but his essence and his

inherent qualities will remain unchanged.
Thus, the One Eeal Being underlying all outward existence
does not become more perfect by clothing Himself with noble
forms, nor does He degrade Himself by manifestation in
inferior theatres. Although the light of the sun illuminates
at once the clean and the unclean, yet it undergoes no modi
fications in the purity of its light ; it acquires neither the
scent of musk nor the colour of the rose, the reproach of the
thorn nor the disgrace of the rugged rock.

When the sun sheds his light for all to share,

It shineson foul things equally with fair ;

Fair things do not augment its radiance,

Nor can foul things its purity impair.

Flash XXI.

The Absolute does not exist without the relative, and the
relative is not formulated without the Absolute but the
;

relative stands in need of the Absolute, while the Absolute

has no need of the relative. Consequently, the necessary
connection of the two is mutual, but the need is on one side
only, as in the case of the motion of a hand holding a key,
and that of the key thus held.
Thou whose sacred precincts none may see,
Unseen Thou makest all things seen to be ;

Thou and we are not separate, yet still

Thou hast no need of us, but we of Thee.

Moreover, the Absolute requires a relative of some sort,

not one particular relative, but any one that may be substi
tuted for it. Now, seeing that there is no substitute for the
Absolute, it is the Absolute alone who is the Qibla of the
needs of all relatives.
 ( 37 )

None by endeavour can behold Thy face,

Or access gain without prevenient grace ?
For every man some substitute is found,
Thou hast no peer, and none can take Thy place.

Of accident or substance Thou hast naught,

Without constraint of cause Thy grace is wrought ;

^Thou canst replace what s lost, but if Thou rt lost,

In vain a substitute for Thee is sought.

It is in regard to His essence that the Absolute has no need

of the relative. In other respects the manifestation of the
names of His Divinity and the realization of the relations of

His Sovereignty are clearly impossible otherwise than by

means of the relative.

In me Thy beauty love and longing wrought :

Did not seek Thee how could st Thou be sought

I ?

My love is as a mirror in the which

Thy beauty into evidence is brought.

Nay, what is more, it is the Truth who is Himself at

once the lover and the beloved, the seeker and the sought.
He is loved and sought in His character of the One who is
all ;
2
and He is lover and seeker when viewed as the sum of
3
all particulars and plurality.

O Lord, none but Thyself can fathom Thee,

Yet every mosque and church doth harbour Thee ;

I know the seekers and what tis they seek

Seekers and sought are all comprised in Thee.

Flash XXII.

The substance of each individual thing may be described

4
either as the epiphany of Very Being in the intelligible
world, according to the particular facet whereof such thing
is the monstrance, or as Very Being Himself made manifest
5
immediately, in the same intelligible world and according to
the same facets. Consequently, each existing thing is either
1
Faiz i azal.
2
Maqdm i Jam i Ahadlyat. Note the change of phrase.
3
Martaba i tafsil wa kitlirat.
*_
Ta ayyun i wajiid.
Wajiid i muta ayijln.
 ( 38 )

an epiphany of Very Being with the colour imparted to its

exterior by the particular properties of its substance, or the

Very Being Himself immediately made manifest with the

same colouring.
The real substance of
everything always abides, though
concealed in the inner depth of the Very Being, while its
sensible properties are manifest to outward sense. For it is
*
impossible that the Divine Ideas in the intelligible world
should be susceptible of evanescence, so that would involve
atheism. [God is too exalted for such evanescence to be
2
ascribed to His Ideas. ]

We are the facets and the modes of Being

Evolved from Mind 3 yea, accidents of Being ;

We re hidden in the cloak of non-existence,

But yet reflected in the glass of Being. 4

5
[Consequently, everything is in reality and in fact either
Being made manifest or an accident of Being thus manifested.
The manifested accident is a quality of the manifested Being,
and though in idea the quality is different from the thing
qualified, yet in fact it is identical with it. Notwithstanding
the difference in idea, the identity in fact justifies the
attribution. 6

In neighbour, friend, companion, Him we see,

In beggar s rags or robes of royalty ;
In Union s cell or in Distraction s haunts, 7
8
There s none but He by God, there s none but He. ]

Flash XXIII.

Although the Very Being underlying all existence com

municates Himself to all beings, both those in the intelligible
and those in the sensible world, yet He does so in different
1
Suwar i
ilmlya.
2
Blank usual for the Arabic sentence.
left_as
3
I.e., the Alam i ilm, the intelligible world of the Divine Ideas.
4
Plotinus and the Gulshan i Kaz make not-being the mirror of Very
Being. Jarni here inverts the metaphor.
5
The following passage omitted in this text. It is probably a gloss
which has crept into some manuscripts.
6
Haml, affirming a predicate of a subject.
7
See Flash II.
8
So Gulshan i Raz/ 1. 883 : See but One, say but One, know but One.
 ( 39 )

degrees [some superior to others]. And in each of these

degrees He
has certain names, attributes, and modes, applic
able to that particular degreeand not to the others e.g., the ;

names Divinity and Sovereignty [are not applicable] to the

degrees called Subordination and the Creature-state. Con
sequently, to apply the names Allah and the Merciful, etc.,

to created beings is sheer infidelity and heresy. And, similarly,

to apply the names suitable to grades of created things to the
Deity is the height of misconception and delusion.

you who deem yourself infallible,

In certitude a very oracle, 1
Each grade of beings has its proper name :

Mark this, or you ll become an infidel. 2

Flash XXIV.
The Eeal Being is One alone, at once the true Existence
and the Absolute. But He 3 possesses different degrees :

In the first degree He is unmanifested and unconditioned,

and exempt from all limitation or relation. In this aspect
He cannot be described by epithets or attributes, and is too
holy to be designated by spoken or written words neither ;

does tradition furnish an expression for His Majesty, nor has

reason the power to demonstrate the depth of His perfection.
The greatest philosophers are baffled by the impossibility of
attaining to knowledge of Him His first characteristic is the
;

lack of all characteristics, and the last result of the attempt

to know Him is stupefaction.
4

To you convictions and presumptions wrought

By evidence intuitive are naught ;

How can one prove your own reality

To such as you who count all proofs as naught ?
However great our heavenly knowledge be,
Itcannot penetrate Thy sanctuary ;

Saints blest with visions and with light divine

Reach no conceptions adequate to Thee.
1
Siddiq, veracious, like Abu Bakr a.?-Siddiq/
2
Zindlq.
See note 2, p. 27.
4
Hairdni. In the Mantiq ut-Tair/ Hairat is the last valley in the
Sfifi pilgrim s progress. To know God he must rise to ecstasy.
 ( 40 )

Our love, 1 the special grace of souls devout,

To reason seems a thing past finding out ;

Oh, may it bring the dawn of certitude,

And put to flight the darksome hours of doubt !

The second degree the self-display of Very Being in an

is

epiphany containing in itself all the active, necessary and

divine manifestations, as well as all the passive, contingent
and mundane manifestations. This degree is named the
2
First Emanation, because it is the first of all the manifesta
tions of the Very Being ;
and above it there is no other degree
than that of the Unmanifested.
The third degree is named the Unity of the Whole
3
Aggregate, which contains in itself all the active and
efficient manifestations. It is named
the degree of Divinity. 4
The fourth degree is the manifestation in detail of the
degree named Divinity it is the degree of the names and ;

the theatres wherein they are manifested. These two last-

named degrees refer to the outward aspect of Being wherein
5
necessity is a universal condition.
1

The degree is the

fifth Unity of the Whole Aggregate,
which includes all the passive manifestations whose character
istic is the potentiality of receiving impressions, i.e., passivity.
It is the degree of mundane existence and contingency. 6
The sixth degree is the manifestation in detail of the

preceding degree the degree of the sensible world. 7

;
it is

These two last degrees refer to the exterior of the intelligible

8
world, wherein contingence is one of the invariable qualities.

1
Bum! describes love as spiritual clairvoyance. See MasnavT, Intro
duction, p. xxviii.
2
Ta ayyun i awwal, usually called aql i hull, universal reason i e.,
nous or Logos, as by Jam! himself in Salaman wa Absal. *
The first
thing created was reason (Hadith).
3
Ahadiyat i Jam*, usually called nafs i hull, universal soul, pneuma.
4
Ilalilyat. See De Sacy s note in Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits,
*

x. 77.
5
Wajub. It belongs to the sphere of Necessary Being.
6 Martaba i Jcaunw/a i imkdniya.
7
<Alam.

Theobject of this distinction is to keep God from contact with matter.

8

Contingency is not found in the immediate reflections of Being, but only

in the reflections from the intelligible world of Divine Ideas.
 (
41 )

It consists of the revelation of the Divine Mind to Himself

under the forms of the substances of the contingent.

Consequently, in reality there is but One Sole Being, who

is interfused in all these degrees and hierarchies which are
1
only the details of the Unity ( Singleness ). Very Being
in these degrees is identical with them, just as these degrees
when they were in the Very Being were identical therewith.
[ God was,
and there was not anything with Him. ] 2

The Truth appears in all would st thou divine ;

How with Himself He doth all things combine 1

See the wine-froth the wine in froth is froth,
:

Yet the froth on the wine is very wine.

Tis the bright radiance of Eternity

That lights Not-being, as we men may see ;

Deemnot the world is severed from the Truth :

In the world He s the world, in Him tis He.

Flash XXV.
The Truth of truths which is the essential, most exalted
Divine Being the Eeality in all things.
is He is One in Him
self, and unique in such wise that plurality cannot enter
into Him ;
but by His multiple revelations and numerous
phenomenal displays He sometimes presented under the
is
3
form of substantial independent entities, and at other times
4
under the form of accidental and dependent entities. Con
sequently, the One Essential Being appears as multiple by
reason of the numerous qualities of these substances and
accidents, although in point of fact He is One, and is in no
wise susceptible of numbers or plurality.

Rase the words this and that *

duality ;

Denotes estrangement and repugnancy ;

In all this fair and faultless universe

Naught but one Substance and one Essence see. 5
^

1
Wdkidlyat. See note 2, p. 30.
2
Asaying attributed to Muhammad. A blank is left for it in this
manuscript.
3
Haqdiq i Jauhariya i matbu a.

5
Haqdiq i arazlya i tribi a.
See note 8, p. 38.
 This unique Substance, viewed as absolute and void of all
phenomena, all limitations and all multiplicity, is the Truth.
*

On the other hand, viewed in His aspect of multiplicity and

plurality, under which He displays Himself when clothed with
phenomena, He is the whole created universe. Therefore the
universe is the outward visible expression of the Truth, and
the Truth is the inner unseen reality of the universe. The
universe before it was evolved to outward view was identical
with the Truth and the Truth after this evolution is
;

identical with the universe. Nay, more, in reality there is

but One Keal Being His concealment [in the Divine Mind]
;

and His manifestation [in the sensible world], His priority

and His posteriority [in point of time], are all merely His
relations and His aspects. It is He who is the first and the

last, the exterior and the interior.

1

In the fair idols, goal of ardent youth,

And in all cynosures 2 lies hid the Truth ;
What, seen as relative, appears the world,
Viewed in its essence is the very Truth. *

When in His partial modes Truth shone out plain,

Straightway appeared this world of loss and gain ;

Were it and all who dwell there gathered back

Into the Whole, the Truth would still remain. 3

Flash XXVI.
The Shaikh (may God be
4 well pleased with him) says in
the Fass i Shuaibl, that the universe consists of accidents all

pertaining to a single substance, which is the Eeality under

lying all existences. This universe is changed and renewed

unceasingly at every moment and at every breath. Every
instant one universe is annihilated and another resembling it
takes its though the majority
place, of men do not perceive
this, as God most glorious has said :
[
But they are in doubt
5
regarding the new creation. ]

Cp. Eev. i. 8, I am Alpha and Omega.

1
Koran, Ivii. 3.
2
Literally,horizons i.e., objects of aspiration.
3
I.e., the grade of plurality in Unity, or Universal Soul.
Muhiyi-ud-dln Muhammad Andalusi, commonly called Ibn Arabi,
4

died 638 A.H. Wrote the Fasux-ul Hikam (Haji Khalfa, iv. 424). Each
section is named after some patriarch e.g., Shu aib (Jethro).
5
Koran, 1. 14. See Gulshan i Baz, 1. 670. Text omitted
1
in this
manuscript.
 Among Eationalists,
1
no one has perceived this truth with
2
.he exception of the Asharians, who recognise it in certain

departments of the universe, to wit, accidents, as when they

say that accidents exist not for two moments together and ;

3
also with the exception of the Idealists, called also Sophists,
who recognise it in all parts of the universe, whether sub
stances or accidents. But both these sects are in error in one
part of their theory. The Asharians are wrong in asserting
the existence of numerous substances other than the One
Real Being underlying all existence on which substances,
they say, depend the accidents which continually change and
are renewed. They have not grasped the fact that the
universe, together with all its parts, nothing but a number
is

of accidents, ever changing and being renewed at every breath,

and linked together in a single substance, and at each instant

disappearing and being replaced by a similar set. In conse
quence of this rapid succession, the spectator is deceived into
the belief that the universe is a permanent existence. The
Asharians themselves declare this when expounding the
succession of accidents in their substances as involving con
tinuous substitution of accidents, in such wise that the
substances are never left wholly void of accidents similar to
those which have preceded them. In consequence of this the
spectator is misled into thinking that the universe is some
4
thing constant and unique.
The ocean does not shrink or vaster grow,
Though the waves ever ebb and ever flow ;

The being of the world s a wave, it lasts

One moment, and the next it has to go.
In the world, men of insight may discern
A stream whose currents swirl and surge and churn,
And from the force that works within the stream
The hidden working of the Truth may learn.
1
Ahl-i nazr, as opposed to ald-i shaJiud, men of spiritual intuition.
2
The followers of Abu-1 Hasan al Ashari, died about 330 A.H. (Ibn
Khallikan. ii. 227).
3
The Rasbaniija.
This
the Heracleitean doctrine that all phenomena are in constant
is

flux, from the Fiery Breath (Pneuma) and remerged in it every

issuing
moment. Jalal-ud-dm quotes the saying of Arqlitus that Contraries
are congruous, the first
suggestion of the Hegelian doctrine that contraries
always involve a higher unity which embraces both. See Lurnsden,
Persian Grammar/ ii: 323.
62
 ( 44 )

As regards the Sophists, though they are right in asserting

the ideality of the whole universe, they are wrong in failing
to recognise the Keal Being underlying it, who clothes Himself
with the forms and accidents of the sensible universe, and
appears to us under the guise of phenomena and multiplicity ;

likewise in denying any manifestation of Eeal Being in the

grades of visible things under the guise of these forms and

accidents, whereas in truth these accidents and forms are

only manifested to outward view by the operation of that
underlying Keal Being.
Philosophers devoid of reason find
This world a mere idea of the rnind ;
Tis an idea but they fail to see
The great Idealist who looms behind.
But the men gifted with spiritual intuition see that the

Majesty of the Truth, most glorious and most

exalted, reveals
Himself at every breath in a fresh revelation, 1 and that He
never repeats the same revelation that is to say, He never
;

reveals Himself during two consecutive moments under the

guise of the same phenomena and modes, but every moment

presents fresh phenomena and modes.
The forms which clothe existence only stay
One moment, in the next they pass away ;

This subtle point proven by the text,

is
1
Its fashion altereth from day to day. 2

The root of this mystery lies in the fact that the Majesty
of the most glorious possesses names opposed 3 to
Truth
one another, some being beautiful and some terrible and ;

these names are all in continuous operation, 4 and no cessation

of such operation is possible for any of them. Thus, when
one of the contingent substances, through the concurrence of

1
See Masnav!, p. 24.
2
Koran Iv. 29.
Lutf and Qahr, or Jamal and Jaltil, the opposite Divine attributes of
3

mercy and vengeance, beauty and terror. The Divine economy is some
times represented as effected by the eternal struggle between these two
opposite phases of Deity, as manifested in Adam and Iblls, Abraham and
Nimrod, Moses and Pharaoh, etc. (see Masnavl, p. 301), a daring Monist
hypothesis, which, needless to say, is not pursued into its consequences.
4
These names, like the Stoic logoi, are sometimes spoken of as ideas,
sometimes as forces or energies.
 ( 45 )

the requisite conditions, and the absence of opposing condi

tions, becomes capable of receiving the Very Being, the mercy
of the Merciful takes possession of and the Very Being is
it,
2
infused into it; and the Very Being thus externalized,
1

through being clothed with the effects and properties of such

substances, presents Himself under the form of a particular
phenomenon, and reveals Himself under the guise of this
phenomenon. Afterwards, by the operation of the terrible
Omnipotence which requires the annihilation of all pheno
mena and all semblance of multiplicity, this same substance
is stripped of these phenomena. At the very moment that it
is thus stripped this same substance is reclothed with another

particular phenomenon, resembling the preceding one, through

the operation of the mercy of the Merciful One. The next
moment this latter is annihilated by operation
phenomenon
of the terrible
Omnipotence, and another phenomenon is
formed by the mercy of the Merciful One and so on for as ;

long as God wills. Thus, it never happens that the Very

Being is revealed for two successive moments under the guise
of the same phenomenon. At every moment one universe is
annihilated and another similar to it takes its place. But he
who is blinded by these veils, to wit, the constant succession
of similar phenomena and .like conditions, believes that the
universe constantly endures in one and the same state, and
never varies from time to time.

The whose bounty, mercy, grace,

glorious God,
And loving-kindness all the world embrace,
At every moment brings a world to naught,
And fashions such another in its place.
All gifts soever unto God are due,
Yet from special names ensue
special gifts ;

At every breath one name annihilates,

And one creates all outward things anew.

The proof that the universe is nothing more than a combi

nation of accidents united in a single essence, i.e., the
1
Ifiizat, production by emanation. See Notices et Extraits des
Manscrits, x., p. 66.
a
Scin evolved into dascin.
 ( 46 )

Truth or Very Being, lies in the fact that when one comes
to define the nature of existing things these definitions in
clude nothing beyond accidents. For example, when one
defines man rational animal
as a and animal as a growing ;

and sentient body, possessed of the faculty of voluntary

movement and body as a substance possessing three
;
*

dimensions and substance as an entity which exists per se

;

and is not inherent in any other subject and entity as an ;

essence possessed of reality and necessary being all the

terms used in these definitions come under the category of

accidents, except this vague essence which is discerned be
hind these terms. For rational signifies an essence en
dued with reason that which is growing signifies an essence
;

endued with the faculty of growth and so on. This vague ;

essence is, in fact, the Truth, the Very Being, who is self-

existent, and who causes all these accidents to exist. And

when the philosophers allege that these terms do not express
the differences themselves, but only the invariable marks of
these differences whereby we express them, because it is
impossible to express the true differences otherwise than by
these invariable marks or others more recondite still, this

assumption inadmissible and undeserving of serious atten

is

tion. And even if we admit it as a hypothesis, we affirm that

whatever essential in relation to special substances is acci
is

dental in relation to the Very Truth for though this alleged ;

essential quality is part of the essence of a particular sub

stance, it is extraneous to the Very Truth upon whom it is

dependent. And to say that there is any substantial entity

other than the One Essential Being is the height of error,
especially when the spiritual intuition of the men of truth,
which borrowed from the lamp of prophecy, attests the
is

contrary, and when their opponents cannot cite any proofs in

1

favour of their own view. [ God saith what is true, and

directeth man in the right path. 2
]

Cp. 1 Cor. ii. 15, He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he
1

himself is judged of no man. Or, as Hegelians would put it, the

deliverances of intuitive reason are not to be tried by the canons of the
discursive reason (verstand).
Koran, xxxiii. 4. A blank is again left for the text in this manuscript.
2
 ( 47 )

Truth is not proved by terms and demonstrations,

Nor seen when hidden by concrete relations; 1
The Canon is no Cure for ignorance,
2
Nor can Deliv rance come from Indications.

If at each Stage thy course diverted be

To Goals, true goal thou lt never see
different ;

And till the veil is lifted from thine eyes

The sun of Truth will never Rise for thee. 3 *

Strive to cast off the veil, not to augment

Book-lore no books will further thy intent.
:

The germ of love to God grows not in books ;

Shut up thy books, turn to God and repent.

The completest mask and the densest veils of the beauty of

the One Real Being are produced by the manifold limitations
which are found in the outward aspect of Being and which result
from His being clothed with the properties and effects of the
4
archetypes indwelling in the Divine Knowledge, which is the
inner side of Being. To those blinded by these veils it seems
that the archetypes exist in these outward sensible objects,
whereas in point of fact these outward objects never attain a
5
particle of those real archetypes, but are and will always
continue in their original not-being. What exists and is
*
manifested is the Truth, but this is only in regard to His
being clothed with the properties and effects of the archetypes,
and not in regard to His condition when bare of all these
properties ;
for in this latter case inwardness and conceal
ment are amongst His inherent qualities. Consequently, in
reality the Very Being never ceases to abide in His Essential
Unity, wherein He was from all eternity and wherein He will
1
Quyud.
2
Alluding to four famous works of Ibn Slna (Avicena), Shifa, Qanun,
Nijat, and Isharat.
3
Alluding to Mawaqif a theological work by Al Iji
,
Maqasid, by ;

Al Taftazanl; and Matali a work 011 logic by Al Ormawi.

,
See
*
Otto Loth, Catalogue of India Office Arabic Manuscripts, pp. 114,
460, and 143.
4
A yan i tliabitali dar hazrat
i Urn, the Ideas or archetypes in Plato s
Intelligible World
Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, vol. x.,
(see
p. 65 Ain has the double meaning of eye and essence, and its
.
f

derivatives an and Ta ayywn are used to denote the reflections of the

Ay
One Being in other words, His emanations which constitute the existences
;

or substances in the world of visible and sensible

5
phenomena ( Alam i Ain).
Literally, smell.
 ( 48 )

endure to all eternity. But to the vulgar, who are blinded by

these veils, the Very Being seems to be relative and pheno
menal, and wearing the form of the multiplicity of these
properties and effects, and He seems manifold to such
persons.

1
Being s a sea in constant billows rolled,
Tis but these billows that we men behold ;

Sped from within, they rest upon the sea,

And like a veil its actual form enfold.

Being s the essence of the Lord of all,

All things exist in Him and He in all ;

This the meaning of the Gnostic phrase,

is

All things are comprehended in the All.

2
[When one thing is manifested in another, the thing mani
fested is different from the thing which is the theatre of the
manifestation i.e., the thing manifested is one thing and its
theatre another. Moreover, that which is manifested in the
theatre is the image or form of the thing manifested, not its
reality or essence. But the case of the Very Being, the Abso
lute, an exception, all whose manifestations are identical
is

with the theatres wherein they are manifested, and in all

such theatres He is manifested in His own essence.

They say, strangeHow This peerless beauty ! s face

3
Within the mirror s heart now holds a place ;
The marvel s not the face, the marvel is

That it should be at once mirror and face.

All mirrors in the universe I ween

Display Thy image with its radiant sheen
Nay, in them all, so vast Thy effluent grace,
Tis Thyself, not Thine image, that is seen.

The Truth, the Very Being, along with all His modes,
His attributes, connections, and relations, which constitute the
real existence of all beings, is immament in the real existence

1
See
Dee Masnavi,
iviasnavi, p. 42. <&.

2 omitted in this manuscript.

The following passage in brackets is
3
In the Gulshan i Raz, 1. 134, Very Being is said to be reflected in the

mirror of not-being.
 ( 49 )

of each being. Hence it has been said, The All exists in

all things. The author of the Gulshan i Raz says :

*
If you cleave the heart of one drop of water
1
There will issue from it a hundred pure oceans. ]

Every power and every act manifested as proceeding from

the theatres manifestation proceed in reality from the
of
*
Truth manifested in these theatres, and not from the
theatres themselves. The Shaikh (may God be well pleased
2
with him) says in the Hikmat i Aliyya Outward existence:

Cain) can perform no act of itself its acts are those of its ;

Lord immanent in it hence this outward existence is passive,

;

and action cannot be attributed to it. Consequently, power

and action are ascribed to the creature ( abcl) because of the
manifestation of the Truth under the form of the creature,
and not because such action is really effected by the creature
himself. [Eead the text God hath created thee, both thee
:

and the works of thy hands 3 ], and recognise the fact that
thy existence, thy power, and thine actions come from the
Majesty of Him who has no equal.
4

Both power and being are denied to us,

The lack of both is what s ordained for us ;

But since tis He who lives within our forms,

Both power and action are ascribed to us.

Your self is non-existent, knowing one !

Deem not your actions by yourself are done ;

Make no wry faces at this wholesome truth

*
Build the wall ere the fresco is begun.
5
Why vaunt thy self before those jealous eyes
*
I

Why seek to deal in this false merchandise 1

Why feign to be existent of thyself 1

Down with these vain conceits and foolish lies !

1
Verse 146.
2
The Shaikh Muliiyi-ud-din Ibn al Arabl. The Ilikmat i Aliyya is
the first section of his Fasus-ul Ilikarn.
Koran, xxxvii. 94. A blank left for the text.
3

*
The Siifis call God, the One Keal Agent Fail-i Haq riql. Deter
minism is a necessary corollary of Monism.
5
Cp, the Hadith, God is more jealous than Sa d ( Masnavi, p. 29,
note). Self-assertion is presumption towards God.
7
 ( 50 )

Flash XXVII.
Since the qualities, states, and actions manifested in the
theatres are in reality to be ascribed to the Very Being
manifested in those theatres, it follows that if a certain evil
or imperfection is found in any of them, it may possibly be
caused by the non-existence of something else for Being, ;

qua Being, is pure good and whenever it seems to us that

;

something existent contains evil, that is owing to the lack of

something else which ought to exist, and not to the really
1
existing Being, qua Being.

All good and all perfection that you see

Are of the Truth, which from all stain is free ;

Evil and pain result from some defect,

Some lack of normal receptivity.

Philosophers have alleged that the proposition Very Being

is pure good is a necessary (self-evident) one. 2 By way of

illustration, they have given some examples. Thus, they

say cold, which spoils the fruit and is an evil in relation to
the fruit, is not an evil [absolutely], because it is one of the
qualities [of Being], and in this respect one of His perfec
tions; but [it is evil] because it prevents the fruit attaining

the perfection proper to it. Thus too killing, which is an

evil, is not an evil by reason of the murderer s power of

killing, nor by reason power of the instrument to cut,

of the
nor body of the person killed to be cut
of the liability of the ;

but [it is an evil] because it deprives a person of life, which

3
is the mere negation [of something positive] and so on. ;

good in whatever it be. If a thing contains evil, that pro

1
Being is
ceeds from Gulshan i Kaz, 1. 871). This represents evil as
"
J
"

( other
something positive. So Dante says matter is intractable (* Paradiso,
Canto I.). Augustine, like Jam!, makes evil merely a deficiency of good.
See Confessions, Book VII., chapter xii.
2
Zarurat. Necessary truths are those of which the contrary is incon
ceivable. Of course, in J ami s time necessity of thought was supposed to
involve necessity of the object of thought.
3
The ideas that God is all and determines all, and that evil is unreal,
may seem true to men like Augustine, glowing with religious emotion, but
are untenable in practice, and if translated into hard theological formulas
become a stumbling-block. Jalal-ud-dTn quietly drops them when it
comes to a question of practice.
 ( 51 )

Wherever Being sambit doth extend,

Good and nought but good is found,
else friend ;

All evil comes from not- being, to wit,

From other, and on other must depend. l
*

Flash XXVIII.
Shaikh Sadr-ud-dm Quniavi 2 (may God sanctify his secret)
says in the book Nusas Knowledge is one of the qualities
:

pertaining toBeing; that is to say, that every existing

substance isendued with knowledge and the difference ;

in the degrees of knowledge results from the differences

of these substances in their reception, whether perfect or

imperfect, of Being. Thus a substance capable of receiving

Being in a most complete and perfect way is capable of
receiving knowledge in the same way and that which is ;

only capable of receiving Being imperfectly is endued with

knowledge in the same degree. This difference originates in
3
the stronger or weaker influence of necessity or con
tingency over each substance. In every substance in which
the influence of necessity is the stronger, Being and know
ledge are most perfect in the remainder, in
;
which the
influence of contingency is more prevalent, Being and
knowledge are more imperfect.
It would seem that what the Shaikh states as to knowledge

specially being a quality appertaining to Being is meant to

convey one example only, because all the other perfections

which are likewise qualities pertaining to Being, such as life,
power, will, etc., are in the same position as knowledge.
Certain other [Sufis] have said single existent thing
: No
is without the quality of knowledgebut knowledge is of two ;

kinds, one ordinarily called knowledge and the other not so

called. Both kinds, according to the men of truth, belong
to the category of knowledge, because they recognise the
1
Gulshan i Baz, 1. 871.
2
An-Nusiis f! tahqiq i taur il makhsus, by the celebrated Sufi
Shaikh Sadr-ud-din Muhammad bin Ishaq al Quniavi, died 672 A.H.
See Haji Khalfa, vi. 349.
^
The more necessary being a thing has, the less it has of contingent
being i.e., less intermixture with not-being. See note 2, p. 33.
72
 ( 52 )

immanence of the essential Truth most

knowledge of the
*

glorious and most exalted in all things whatsoever. It is

in the second class that we must place "

water," for example,

which is not ordinarily considered as possessed of knowledge.

But we see that it distinguishes between up and down hill ;

it avoids the rise and runs downwards

again, it sinks into ;

porous bodies, whilst it only wets the surface of dense bodies

and passes over them, etc. Therefore, it is by virtue of the
quality of knowledge that it runs, according to the capacity
of one object to admit it, and the absence of opposing pro

perties in such objects. But, in this degree, knowledge is

manifested only under the form of nature. 1 In this manner
knowledge is immanent in all other existing things or, rather, ;

all perfections pertaining to Being are immanent in all things

without exception.

Being, with all its latent qualities,

Doth permeate all mundane entities,
Which, when they can receive them, show them forth
In the degrees of their capacities.

Flash XXIX.
Just as the Truth, the Very Being, in virtue of His
absolute purity, is immanent in the substances of all beings
in such wise as to be essentially identical with these sub
stances, as these substances are, when in Him, identical with
Him in like manner His perfect qualities are entirely and
;

absolutely immanent in all qualities of the substances in such

wise as to be identical with their qualities, even as their
qualities when in those perfect qualities were identical there
with. For example, the quality of knowledge, in the know
2
ledge of the knower particulars, is identical with
of this

knowledge of particulars, and in the knowledge of him

who knows universals 2 is identical with this knowledge of
tmiversals in active and passive 3 knowledge it is identical
;

1
I.e., in unconscious objects. Thus Aristotle says plants seek their
own perfection unconsciously, while man does it consciously.
2
Juzviydt and kulliydt.
Fi ti and infi dll i.e., knowledge gained by inference and reasoning,
3

and that conveyed by immediate consciousness and sensation.

 ( 53 )

1
with such knowledge; in ecstatic and mystic knowledge it
is identical with that kind of knowledge similarly down to
the knowledge of those beings not ordinarily classed as having
knowledge, wherein it is identical with such knowledge in a

manner suitable to the character of such beings, and so on

2
for the other divine attributes and qualities.

Thy essence permeates all entities,

As do Thy attributes all qualities ;

In Thee they re absolute, but when displayed,

3
They re only seen in relative degrees.
4
[ The reality of existence is the essence 5 of the Truth
most glorious and most exalted the modes, relations, and;

6
aspects of existence are His attributes His manner of ;

manifesting Himself in the vesture of these relations and

7
aspects is His action and His impress; the phenomena
manifested and proceeding from this self-revelation are the
8
products of His impress.

Th essential modes and heavens present 9

in earth
Facets of Him who
veiled and immanent
s ;

Hence, inquirer, learn what essence is,

What attribute, what cause, what consequent.]

Flash XXX
In some passages of the Fastis the Shaikh 10 (may God
show mercy upon him) seems to point to the view that the
existence of all contingent substances and of all perfections
u
dependent on that existence [ is to be ascribed to the
Majesty of the Truth most glorious and most exalted ;

1
WijdTml and dhauqi.
2
Here the last quatrain in Flash XXVIII. is repeated.
3

4
Taqayyud, limitation.
The following passage in brackets is omitted in this manuscript.
5
Dluit.
6
Sifat.
7
Fi il and tatlilr.
8
Atlidr.
9
Dunya wa dm, earth and the celestial spheres, the theatres or
monstrances Divine perfections, rather than the world and the
of the
Moslem Church (the ordinary meaning).
c
See note 4, p. 42.
1
This passage in square brackets is found in one British Museum
manuscript. It certainly makes the sense clearer.
 ( 54 )

whilst in other passages he seems to say that what is

ascribed to the Majesty of the Truth is merely an emana

tion 1 of Being; and as regards the qualities dependent on

existence, they are effects produced by the substances them

selves. These two statements may be thus reconciled The :

Majesty of the Truth most glorious is revealed in two

manners the first the inward, subjective 2 revelation, which
the Sufis name Most Holy Emanation 3 it consists in the ;

self-manifestation of the Truth to His own consciousness

from all eternity under the forms of substances, 4 their
characteristics and capacities. The second revelation is the
*
outward objective manifestation, which is called Holy
5
Emanation ; it consists in the manifestation of the
Truth,
with the impress of the properties and marks of the same
substances. 6 This second revelation ranks after the first;
it is the theatre wherein are manifested to sight the perfec
tions which in the first revelation were contained potentially
in the characteristics and capacities of the substances.

One grace a host of suppliant forms designed,

A second to each one his lot assigned ;
The first had no beginning of the last,
Which springs from it, no end can be divined. 7

Wherefore, the ascription of existence and the perfections

dependent thereon] to the Truth most glorious and most
exalted has regard to the two revelations taken together and ;

the ascription to the Truth of existence alone, and of its

dependents to the substances, has reference to the second
revelation for the only result of the second revelation is the
;

emanation of Being into the substances, and so making

1
Ifdzat, production by emanation. See De Sacy s article on Jorjani s
Definitions (Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits, x., p. 66).
2
Ilmi.
3
Faiz i Aqdas (see Notices et Extraits, x., p. 66), the first emana
tion, ox aql i hull.
4

5
I.e., the archetypal ideas of the intelligible world, dlam i ilmi.
Faiz i Muqaddas, the second emanation, or nafs i hull (Anima
mundi).
6
I.e., dlam i aim, the sensible world, the copy of the intelligible
world.
7
The sensible world issues from the intelligible world, and will continue
as long as God wills.
 ( 35 )

visible what had already been included in them by the

first revelation.

Mark well this subtle point each quality,

Each action that in substances we see,
On one side is attributed to us,
On one to TRUTH, the sole Reality.

APPENDIX. 1

Whereas my aim and object in giving these explanations

and hints has been to call attention to the essential omni
presence of the Majesty of the Truth most glorious, and
to
the immanence of His light in all the grades [of sensible
existence], to the end that the pilgrims and aspirants endued
with knowledge and reflection may not neglect the contempla
tion of His Being while preoccupied with any other being,
and that they may not forget the consideration of the perfec
tion of His attributes while paying regard solely to the

qualities manifested [in the sensible universe], and whereas

what has been said above is sufficient for this purpose, and
satisfactorily accomplishes this end, I therefore conclude the
-book at this point, merely adding the following quatrains :

JamI leave polishing of phrases, cease

!

Writing and chanting fables, hold thy peace ;

Dream not that Truth can be revealed by words :

From this fond dream, dreamer, iind release !

2

Beggars in tattered clothes their rents should hide,

And lovers take discretion for their guide,
And, since words do but veil the Loved One s face,
Tis well for us in silence to abide.

How long wilt thou keep clanging like a bell ?

Be still, and learn this flood of words to quell ;

Thou lt never come to hold the pearl of Truth

Till thou art made all ear, as is the shell. 3

1
Tadliyil in one manuscript ; another has Flash.
2
The Masnavi finishes in the same strain. See the parable of the
Moslem who, by childlike faith, prevailed over his learned fellow-travellers
(p. 304).
*
I.e., the oyster-shell (see Gulshan i Eaz, 1. 572). Here in one
manuscript there follow two quatrains which are mere variations of the
same theme.
 ( 56 )

Thou who for grief hast soiled thy weeds with dust, 1
Soil not thy lips with speech (for soil it
must) ;

While thou can st commune silently with Him,

Eather than speak stop up thy mouth with dust !

This treatise was completed by the help of God and the

favour of His grace. May He bless Muhammad and his
family and his companions !

1
Eead Kliakat ba ~kafan. V. L., Cliakat i.e., in token of mourning.
APPENDICES
 APPENDIX I

GHAZZALl ON TAUHlD n

PRAISE be to God, the Creator and Eestorer of all things ;

who does whatsoever He pleases, who is Master of the

glorious throne and mighty force, and directs His sincere
servants into the right way and the straight path ; who
favoureth them who have once borne testimony to the Unity
by preserving their confessions from the darkness of doubt
and hesitation ; who directs them to follow His chosen
apostle, upon whom
be the blessing and peace of God and ;

to go after hismost honourable companions, to whom He

hath vouchsafed His assistance and direction, which is revealed
to them in His essence and operation by the excellencies of
His attributes, to the knowledge whereof no man attains but
he that hath been taught by hearing. 2 To these, as touching
His essence, He maketh known that He is One, and hath no
partner singular, without anything like Him uniform, having
; ;

no contrary separate, having no equal.

;
3
He is ancient,
having no first eternal, having
;
no beginning remaining for ;

ever, having no end continuing to eternity without any

;

termination. He persists, never ceasing to be remains ;

without falling and never did cease, nor ever shall cease, to
;

be described by glorious attributes nor is subject to any ;

decree so as .to be determined by any precise limits or set

times, but is the First and the Last, and is within and
without.

Specimen Historiae Arabum

1
This passage is given in Pococke s

(Oxoniae, 1650), p. 284, and this translation of it by Ockley is copied from

Hughes s Notes on Muhammadanism.

2
Faith cometh by hearing (Rom. x. 17).
3
This is directed against the Christian Trinity, which all Moslems
suppose to be the equivalent of Tritheism.
59 82
 ( 60 )

What God is not. He, glorified be His name, is not a

1
body endued with form, nor a substance circumscribed with
limits or determined by measure neither does He resemble ;

bodies, as they are capable of being measured and divided.

Neither is He a substance, nor do substances exist in Him ;

nor is He an accident, nor do accidents exist in Him. Neither

isHe anything that exists, nor is anything like to
like to
Him ;
nor He
determinate in quantity, nor comprehended
is

by bounds, nor circumscribed by differences of situation, nor

contained in the heavens. He sits upon the throne, after
that manner which He Himself hath described, and in that
sense which He Himself means, which isa sitting far removed
from any notion of contact, or resting upon, or local situation ;

but both the throne itself, and whatsoever is upon it, are sus
tained by the goodness of His power, and are subject to the
grasp of His hand.
2
But He is above the throne and above
all things, even to the utmost ends of the earth but so above ;

as at the same time not to be a whit nearer the throne and

the heaven since He is exalted by (infinite) degrees above the
;

throne, no less than He is exalted above the earth, and at the

same time He is near to everything that hath being nay,
nearer to men than their jugular veins, and is witness to
*

3
everything though His nearness is not like the nearness of
bodies, as neither is His essence like the essence of bodies.
Neither doth He exist
4
in anything, neither doth anything
exist in Him ; but He is too high to be contained in any place,

and too holy to be determined by time for He was before ;

time and place were created, and is now after the same
manner as He always was. He is also distinct from the
creatures in His attributes, neither is there anything besides
Himself in His essence, nor is His essence in any other be-

1
This is directed against the Anthropomorphists, the Keramians,
3
and the Moshabbehites. See Sale, Preliminary Discourse to Koran,
Section viii.
2
Just like Philo, Ghazzali struggles with the anthropomorphic language
of the Koran, in order to remove God from contact with matter, which his
reading of Greek philosophy had taught him was evil.
3
Surah, 1. 15.
4
Directed againsi those who held the doctrine of Incarnation, the
flalfilians.
 ( 61 )

sides Him. He too holy to be subject to change or

is any
local motion ; neither do any accidents dwell in Him, nor any
contingencies before Him but He abides through all genera ;

tions with His glorious attributes, free from all danger of

dissolution. As to the attribute of perfection, He wants no
addition. As to being, He is known to exist by the apprehen
sion of theunderstanding ;
and He is seen as He is by
immediate intuition, which will be vouchsafed out of His
mercy and grace to the holy in the eternal mansion, com
1
pleting their joy by the vision of His glorious presence.
His Power. His is the dominion and the excellency
. . .

and the creation and the command. 2 His excellency . . .

consists in His creating and producing, and His unity in

3
communicating existence and the beginning of being. . . .

His Knowledge. He knows what is secret and conceals it,

and views the conceptions of minds and the motions of
thoughts, and the inmost recesses of secrets, by a knowledge
ancient and eternal, that never ceased to be His attribute
from eternal eternity, and not by any new knowledge super-
added to His essence. . . .

His Will. He doth will those things to be that are, and

disposes of all accidents. Nothing passes in the empire or
the kingdom, neither small nor great, nor good nor evil, nor

profitable nor hurtful, nor faith nor infidelity, nor knowledge

nor ignorance, nor prosperity nor adversity, nor increase nor
decrease, nor obedience nor rebellion, but by. His determinate
counsel and decree and His definite sentence and will. . . .

He it is who gave all things their beginning ; He is the Creator

and Eestorer, the sole Operator of what He pleases there is no ;

reversing His decree nor delaying what He hath determined ;

nor is there any refuge to Him, man from his rebellion against
but only His help and mercy nor hath any man any power ;

to perform any
duty towards Him but through His love and
4
will. . . .

1
The beatific vision of Dante s Paradise. The idea came in the last
resort from the
Platonists, from whom Ghazzali also probably got it.
Surah, vii. 52, Are not creation and command of Him ?
All created existence is one, and
4
proceeds from the One.
This language shows how easily the conception of Monotheism
passed
into Monism i.e., the religious view into the philosophic.
 ( 62 )

His Word. Furthermore, He doth command, forbid, promise

and threaten, by an eternal ancient Word subsisting in His
essence. 1 Neither is it like to the word of the creatures, nor
doth it consist in a voice arising from the commotion of the
air or the collision of bodies, nor letters which are separated

by the joining together of the lips or the motion of the tongue.

The Koran, the Law, the Gospel, and the Psalter, are books
sent down by Him to His apostles, and the Koran, indeed, is
read with tongues, written in books, and kept in hearts yet ;

as subsisting in the essence of God it doth not become liable

to separation and division when it is transferred to hearts and
2
to papers. Thus, Moses also heard the word of God without
voice or letter, even as the saints behold the essence of God
without substance or accident. . . .

He exists after such a manner that nothing

His Works.
besides Him
hath any being but what is produced by His
operation, and floweth from His justice after the best, most
excellent, most perfect, and most just models.
3
. . .

things were created by Him genii, men, the devil,

All

angels, heaven, earth, animals, plants, substance, accident,

intelligible, sensible. He created them by His power out of
mere privation, and brought them into light when as yet they
were nothing at all,
4
but He Himself alone existed from all

eternity, neither was there any other with Him. Now, He

created things in the beginning for the manifestation of
all

His power and His will and the confirmation of His word,
which was true from all eternity. Not that He stood in need
of them nor wanted them, but He manifestly declared His
glory in creating and producing and commanding, without
being under any obligation nor out of necessity. . . .

He rewards those that worship Him for their obedience on

account of His promise and beneficence, not of their merit,
nor of necessity, since there is nothing which He can be tied
See Hirschfeld On the Qoran, p. 14. The Logos.
1 3

2
This is the opinion that the Koran was uncreated condemned by
Al Mamun in the second century A.H. See Hirschfeld on the Tjaz
(miracle) of the Qoran, p. 8.
3
Here we have Plato s ideas or archetypes in the intelligible world,
after the pattern of which sensible objects are formed.
4 5

Privation, the Greek not-being. Note also substance and accident.

 ( 63 )

toperform nor can any injustice be supposed in Him nor

; ;

can He be under any obligation to any person whatsoever.

That His creatures, however, should be bound to serve Him
ariseth from His having declared by the tongues of the
prophets that it was due to Him from them. The worship of
Him is not simply the dictate of the understanding, but He
sent messengers to carry to men His commands and promises
and threats, whose veracity He proved by manifest miracles, 1
whereby men are obliged to give credit to them in those
2
things that they relate.
1
Muhammad s miracles were the ydt, signs (texts of the Koran).
See Hirschfeld On the Qoran, pp. 1, 8.
2
Ghazzall speaks as an orthodox Moslem, but Greek influences are
manifest in this passage, and his statements on the thorny subject of grace
and works recall those of the great Christian Platonist Augustine.
 APPENDIX II

PLOTINUS

FROM Anaxagoras onwards the main principle of Greek

philosophy was dualism, the opposition of the One and the
many, God and the world. In an often-quoted passage
Plato says the Ideal Good is beyond existence (epekeina tes
ousias).
*
Next in the descending scale he placed the Intelligible
World of Ideas or archetypes, conceived by reason (Nous).
Then came the Sensible World of phenomena, which were
1
only copies of the divine archetypes reproduced in matter.
This matter was of itself non-existent (me on) in fact, a mere ;

potentiality of taking the imprints of the archetypes.

With the Stoics monism made its appearance, and took the
place of the previous dualism. For Plato s Ideas they sub
stituted Logoi, thoughts, forms, or forces immanent in the
universe. And these Logoi were often spoken of as all
summed up in the one Logos. Most Stoics, likeEpictetus and
Marcus Aurelius, regarded the universe as natura naturans,
manifested Logos or Anima Mundi ; others regarded the
Logoi as only functions of matter (natura naturata).
Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, who lived at the same time as
St. Paul, managed to combine this Logos doctrine with the
2
Hebrew Scriptures. By allegorical interpretation he identi
fied the Stoic Logoi with the angels mentioned in the Scrip

tures, and at the same time he reduced the personal Yahveh

of the Scriptures to the abstract Being of Greek philosophy.
1
See Masnavi, p. 226.
2
The Book of Wisdom, probably the work of a Hellenizing Jew,
prepared the way for Philo, but the cautious writer speaks not of Greek
Logos, but of Hebrew Wisdom, as the first effluent, the mirror and
5

express image of the Deity (Wisd. vii. 26).

64
 ( 65 )

The Hebrew prophets had almost personified the Word of

the Lord and Wisdom and Logos, with its double meaning
;

of thought and word (ratio and oratio), was easily identified

with Word and Wisdom. As Dr. Hirschfeld has pointed
out, Amr and Kalima underwent a similar process in the
Koran. 1 The Logos, having been thus personified, plays a
very important part in Philo s system. It becomes the

Demiurge or Architect of the world. The metaphor of gene

ration is employedpicture the mode of its operation.
to
Sometimes figured as masculine, sometimes as a female
it is

agent, but in either case it is one of the parents of the world

of phenomena.
2
On the whole it may be said that Philo s
leading principles were, first, to remove the Deity far away
from any contact with matter, and, secondly, to explain the
existence of the world by the hypothesis of intermediate and
subordinate agencies through whom the Deity worked, so as
not to touch matter Himself.
Hence Philo s system was dualism. And this dualistic
tendency was fostered by the growing influence of Manicheism.
Manes, who formulated this old Persian dualism, did not live
tillthe third century A.D., but many of the Gnostic sects of
the second century A.D. held what were in fact Manichean
opinions. And this led some, like Basileides, to emphasize
the separation of the Deity from the evil material world.
Basileides, for instance, though he firmly believed in God,
declared in hyperbolical language that He was ouk on, without
existence in the sense of the phenomenal existence known to
man. 3 Others, like Valentinus, imagined a series of JEons or
intermediate Intelligences, so as to remove the transcendental
God as far as possible from contact with matter. These
were possibly the prototypes of the Sufi Ten Intelli-

1
New Researches in the Qoran, 1902, p. 15. Some Sufi theologians
identified Muhammad with Universal Reason, or Logos. See Palmer s
Oriental Mysticism, p. 43, and Masnavi, p. 179.
2
Yonge s translation of Philo, i. 359 and ii. 205 (quoted in Appendix to
Masnavi ). Tholuck, when he encounters this idea in Masnavi/ p. 77,
and Gulshan i Raz, 1. 622, finds it shocking but few like to face the
;

historical antecedents or parallells of cherished tenets.

3
See ManscPs Gnostic Heresies, p. 147.

9
 ( 66 )

gences and of the Celestial Hierarchies of Dionysius, which

supplied the frame of Dante s Paradise.
Plotinus, who lived in the third century A.D was a mystic ,

who husied himself with philosophy only to seek corroboration

of his mystical beliefs. He started with the conviction that
the One was all in all, and that all phenomena had no exist
ence apart from it. He tried to reach a conception of the
transcendental One by abstracting or stripping off all limita
tionsand conditions incident to phenomenal existence, and by
assuming that the residuum was the One. But as this
residuum was void of all positive contents, it could not be
conceived by common reason, and could be described only in
negative terms, as Unconditioned, Infinite, Incompre
hensible, and the like. Eeason could not say what it was,
but only what it was not. His position thus seems to be
precisely that of agnosticism, as expounded in H. Spencer s
First Principles. But here the resemblance ceases. Plotinus
held that the impotence of reason to conceive the Absolute
proved that ordinary reason must be entirely discarded in
these matters, so as to give free play to the superior faculty
of spiritual intuition or intuitive reason (Nous), which alone

competent to deal with them. This faculty discerns the

1
is

One to be no mere negation, but a supreme energy of self-

2
manifestation. Without any diminution or decrease of itself
the One ever pours forth or rays out effluences. Hence arises
an image or reflection of the One in Nous or Eeason, the First
Emanation, comprehending all being and all thought. From
this proceeded in like manner the Second Emanation, called
3
the World-soul, Psyche, which acted as the mediator be
tween the supra-sensible and the sensible worlds. This, again,
generated the particular souls, human, animal, and vegetive,
and, lastly, all inorganic substances. The substratum of all
1
Just so the Nominalists and their modern followers deny to reason
a voice, not only on questions of pure ontology, but on all points settled
by traditional dogma (Harnack, vi. 163) but thus to discard reason
;

altogether is to make every superstition impregnable.

2
The scholastic term was Actus purus, pure actuality or energizing.
3
The later history of the World-soul is given in Kenan s Averroes.
Dante censured it, and the Lateran Council of 1518 anathematized it.
Pope, following Spinoza, revived it.
 ( 67 )

these manifestations of the One in the sensible world was

matter, which was non-existent (me on), and yet the
of itself
l
basis of each sensible object (bathos ekastou)
; in other words,
it was a mere
potentiality of receiving the imprint of the
Divine effluences.
The One, the Eeason, and the World-soul, constitute the so-
called Plotinian Trinity, which
one, not of equality, but of
is

subordination. Plotinus says Reason (Nous) is the Logos of

the One, and Soul (Psyche) the Logos of the Eeason. 2
So much for the theory. As regards practice Plotinus held
that man s duty was to return to the One. 3 The motive for
this return was the loveof the divine spark in his soul for its
and
source, its consequent craving to be reunited therewith.

The One was itself unmoved, but attracted its effluents through
being the object of their love and desire. The return was to
be effected by retracing the downward course into the realm
of matter. By what Dionysius later called the negative
way, the mystic aspirant must abstract and strip off all the
material and sensuous accretions which had overlaid his real
essence. This was to be effected, 4 first, by practising civic
virtues, next the purifying virtues of asceticism and self-
mortification,and finally the deifying virtue of contemplation. 5
At last he would transcend all the barriers separating him
from the One, and would be absorbed and reunited with the
One. Of this blessed state he could only hope to gain
transient glimpses during life, but when the body perished he
would abide for ever one with the One. Plotinus sums up by
saying this is the flight of the Alone to the Alone.
As Dr. Bigg points out, this mystical ascent of the soul is
1
Not-being is an equivocal term nothing in relation to God, but a
very pernicious something in relation to man.
2
Ennead, V., 1 and 6, quoted in Whittaker s The Neoplatonists, p. 87,
3

note 1.
3
Plotinus followed Plato, who had said man s object should be to attain
likeness to God as far as possible (Homoiosis to theo).
4
This threefold division of the virtues agrees with the Sufi division of
the Law, the Path, and the Truth.
beholding God
5
Contemplation, Theoria was Theou orasis, the
according to the Schoolmen s derivation of the word. Plotinus says the
One is seen in presence which is better than science (kata parousian
istemes kreittona).

92
 ( 68 )

described by Augustine almost in the words of Plotinus l :

Thus as we talked and yearned after the eternal life, we

touched an instant with the whole force of our hearts.
it for
We said if the tumult of the flesh were hushed
then, ;

hushed these shadows of earth, sea, and sky hushed ;

the heavens and the soul itself, so that it should pass beyond
itself and not think of itself if all dreams were hushed and
:

all sensuous revelations, and every tongue and

every symbol ;

if all that comes and

goes were hushed they all proclaim to
him that hath an ear: We made not ourselves; He made
"

us who abideth for ever." But suppose that, having delivered

their message, they held their peace, turning their ear to Him
who made them, and He
alone spoke, not by them, but
that
for Himself, and that we heard His word, not by any fleshly

tongue, nor by an angel s voice, nor in the thunder, nor in any

His voice, whom we love in these His creatures
similitude, but
suppose we heard Him without any intermediary at all
just now we reached out, and with one flash of thought
touched the Eternal Wisdom that abides aboves all. Suppose
this endured, and all other inferior modes of vision were taken
away, and this alone were to ravish the beholder, and absorb
him and plunge him in mystic joy, might not eternal life be
like this moment of comprehension ?
This is an admirable statement of the Plotinian return to
the One. 2 It also well illustrates the main characteristic of
the system viz., its ultimate dependence on emotion rather
than on intellect. Philosophy is only the handmaid of
theology, only used to support and justify pre-existing beliefs.
When his reason lands him in contradictions, as it must do
when it tries to transcend its limits and outsoar the very
1
See Bigg s Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 821 and note. All these
Plotinian ideas were worked into Christian theology by Clement and
Origen, himself a pupil of Ammonius Saccas, under whom Plotinus had
studied. See Bigg s Christian Platonists of Alexandria.
2
See Ghazz all s account in Appendix III. Also Hayy Ibn Yokdhan or
Philosophus autodidactus, published by Pococke in 1671, and now trans
lated by Dr. Bronnle under the title The Awakening of the Soul (Murray,
1905). See his Introduction, pp. 17-19. A passage of this is quoted by
*
the Quaker Barclay in his Apology, edition of 1678, p. 126. Plotinus s
own account may be read in Thomas Taylor s translation (Bell and Son s
reprint, 1895, pp. 301-324).
 ( 60 )

atmosphere that bears it up, Plotinus straightway falls back

on feeling and the inner light. Love and faith are a mighty
spell, as Jalal-ud-dm KumI says, and with Plotinus love and
1

faith are always at hand to supplement the deficiencies of

pure intellect.
The best accounts of Plotinus are those of Harnack in his

History Dogma, English translation, i. 347 ; of Caird in

of
his Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers, ii.
*
210 ;
and Whittaker in his Neoplatonists.
of Opinions
differ as to whether he is to be classed as a Monist or as a

Dualist. This would depend on whether his not-being is to

be regarded as nothing or as something. Be this as it may,
no one can read his impassioned outpourings without seeing
that his theological reasoned statements by no means give the
full measure of his beliefs. What he did believe in with a
very passion of conviction was a Deity endued in some sense
with the principal attributes of a personal God.
1
Masnavi, p. 262.
 APPENDIX III

GHAZZALl ON MYSTICAL UNION 1

*
PnAYERs 2 have three whereof the
prayers uttered
veils, first is

only by the tongue ; the second

the mind, by hard is when
endeavour and by firmest resolve, reaches a point at which,
being untroubled by evil suggestions, it is able to concentrate
on divine matters; the third veil is when the mind
itself

can with difficulty be diverted from dwelling on divine

matters. But the marrow of prayer is seen when He who
isinvoked by prayer takes possession of the mind of him who
prays, and the mind of the latter is absorbed in God whom
he addresses, his prayers ceasing and no self-consciousness
abiding in him, even to this extent that a mere thought about
his prayers appears to him a veil and a hindrance. This
state is called .

absorption by the doctors of mystical lore,

when a man is so utterly absorbed that he perceives nothing
of his bodily members, nothing of what is passing without,
nothing what occurs to his mind yea, when he is, as it
of

were, absent from all these things whatsoever, journeying

first to his Lord, then in his Lord. But if the thought occurs
to him that he is totally absorbed, that is a blot ;
for only
that absorption is worthy of the name which is unconscious
of absorption.
I know these words of mine will be called an insipid
discourse by narrow theologians, but they are by no means
devoid of sense. Why ? The condition of which I speak is
similar to the condition of the man who lovesany other things
e.g., wealth, honour, pleasures; and just as we see some
1
The Arabic text and a Latin translation of this passage are given by
Tholuck in his Ssufismus, pp. 3 and 105.
2
Dliikr is the term used to denote the orisons of the Dervishes.
70
 ( 71 )

engrossed by love, we see others overpowered by anger so that

they do not hear one who speaks, or see one who passes, and
are so absorbed by their overwhelming passion, that they are
not even conscious of being thus absorbed. For so far as you
attend to the absorption of your mind, you must necessarily be
diverted from Him who is the cause of your absorption. . . .

/And now, being well instructed as to the nature of

absorption," and casting aside doubts, do not brand as false
"

what you are unable to comprehend. God most high saith in

the Koran They brand as false what they do not compre
"

The meaning of having been made

"
"

hend." absorption
clear, you must know that the beginning of the path is the

journey to God, and that the journey in God is its goal, for
in this latter, absorption in God takes place. At the outset
this glidesby like a flash of light, barely striking the eye but ;

thereafter becoming habitual, it lifts the mind into a higher t

world, wherein the most pure, essential Eeality is manifested,

and the human mind is imbued with the form of the spiritual
world whilst the majesty of the Deity evolves and discloses
itself. Now, what first appears is the substance of angels,
spirits, prophets, and saints, for a while under the veil of I
know not what beautiful forms, wherefrom certain particular
verities are disclosed but by degrees, as the way
; is opened
out, the Divine Verity begins to uncover His face. Can any
one, I ask, who
attains a glimpse of such visions, wherefrom
he returns to the lower world disgusted with the vileness of
all earthly things, fail to marvel at those who, resting content

with the deceits of the world, never strive to ascend to

sublimer heights ?
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